What the .... ???
Dad spoke to son in KlingonBy Virginia Wheeler
Published: 21 Nov 2009 A DAD spoke only KLINGON to his son for the first three years of his life to see if he could pick up the alien language.
Linguist Dr d'Armond Speers came up with the idea after watching an episode of Star Trek. He spent days translating phrases into Klingon - hoping his toddler's first word would be "vav" rather than "dad".
Dr Speers, of Minnesota, US, battled on with commands like "find the USS Enterprise", - but his wife only spoke English to the infant.
He said: "He was definitely starting to learn it. When Alec spoke back to me in Klingon his pronunciation was excellent."
Dr Speers experienced problems with his project as the alien language lacked common words like "diaper" and "bottle."
He was forced to use phrases like "thing which is flat" for "table". Eventually he abandoned his scheme, admitting his son "stopped listening to me when I spoke in Klingon". He added: "It was clear he didn't enjoy it."
Alec, now 13, doesn't speak a word of Klingon.
Dr Speers denied being a Trekkie, saying: "I don't go to conventions or wear fake foreheads. I'm a linguist. I get nostalgic when I look back at singing the Klingon lullaby May The Empire Endure."
Actor Leonard Nimoy, who played Capt Kirk's pal Mr Spock, and writer Harve Bennett wanted the alien Klingons to speak a "proper language" and roped in an expert to develop one.
Klingon has 21 consonants and five vowels and is the most spoken fictional language.
Read more:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2740083/Dad-spoke-to-son-in-Klingon-for-three-years.html#ixzz0Xi6D08wv