[Tlhingan-hol] wa'maH cha' jatlhwI'pu' po'qu' chaH 'Iv'e'?

[Robyn Stewart]

The term "fluent" doesn't really seem to mean anything. I would 
consider myself fluent in a language if I could say anything I had to 
express without ever having to pause to look for the way to formulate 
the sentence and could completely understand well-formatted sentences 
spoken at a normal to rapid rate. I haven't ever considered myself 
fluent in Klingon, and I don't remember ever speaking with anyone 
that met that target.

I don't know where I got that definition, and it doesn't bother me 
that not everyone uses it. Lawrence used to not speak Klingon nearly 
as well as he does now, and he probably looked around the room at 
qep'a'mey and identified the group of people who could hold a 
conversation about pretty much anything and comfortably live for a 
day or so entirely in Klingon, with the major impediment being trying 
to communicate with people who hadn't reached that level. I can 
imagine there were about twelve of us in 1996 -- 1996? That was 
wejDIch!  Most of us certainly got a lot better than we were then, 
and then some of us have declined again. His list probably would have 
included: Qanqor, Seqram, charghwI', ghunchu'wI', Holtej, me, 
nIchyon, yoDtargh, DrujIv (the last two I've never met)  and ... I 
think taD, SuStel, pagh je weren't there in 1996 yet. Who 
else?  There was a  young, shy, guy whose name I have forgotten but 
who advised me of my ability, "not yIyon," and the advice stuck fast. 
And now there are lots of new speakers, many DoyIchlan[n]ganpu' 
vIqIHbe'bu'bogh, 'ISqu', latlhpu' law' vIlijpu'bogh je. qanoppu'chugh 
qatIch vIneHbe'. 1996 vIqelqu'.

You will meet many people who say they know someone who is fluent in 
Klingon, and most of the time they will turn out to speak hardly a 
word. If you meet someone you've never heard of who supposedly speaks 
Klingon and they can put together a single original sentence, you're 
doing well. I wish I had the resources to track down every 
independent Klingon speaker and haul them all to qep'a'.

Delton is pretty active on the net with costuming group, and he's at 
least first hand claiming his fluency. He might be on here, even.  I 
found him on Facebook, so if he accepts my friend request I'll set up 
a video chat or something.

There must be over a hundred people who can produce competent Klingon 
text and read others' work, upping that to hundreds to thousands if 
they are allowed reference material, and depending on how much time 
you give them.  Spoken Klingon though ... pretty rare.

I just want to speak Klingon as well as I possibly can and increase 
the cicles so there are as many as possible really good speakers, but 
also as many as possible people who know a tiny bit, even if their 
friends declare them fluent and confuse the issue.

- Qov

At 00:56 '?????' 3/24/2012, you wrote:
>rut ngoDHomqoq vIlegh: wa'maH cha' tlhIngan Hol jatlhwI'pu' po'qu'
>lutu'lu'. 'e' Harlaw' {the Internet}:
>http://www.google.com/#q=twelve+fluent+Klingon+speakers
>
>chaH 'Iv? jatlhwI' po'qu' ghaH vay''e' rut vabDot net maq![1]
>chovnatlhvam yIqIm:
>http://alientongues.com/?p=128
>jatlh {Delton Wilson}: {I am one of those "twelve" Klingon speakers
>that you wrote about...}
>
>not nuvvam pong vIQoypu'. 'ach DuHqu' DuHvam: noybogh qoj po'qu'bogh
>tlhIngan jatlhwI'pu''e' Hoch vISovbe'.  pIj pong pIm lo' je tlhIngan
>jatlhwI'pu'.  chaq naDev ghaHtaH {Delton Wilson}vam'e' 'ach pongDaj
>vIghovbe' neH jIH'e'.
>
>'ach qo'Daq tlhIngan Hol jatlhwI'pu' po'qu' 'ar tu'lu'?  tlhIngan Hol
>yejHaDvaD toy'pu' taghwI' pabpo'[2] 'ar?  pab pIn patlh'e' bajlu'bogh
>'ar ghov yejHaD?  po'wI' 'ar ghov?  ghojwI' 'ar ghov?  Sov'a' vay'?
>http://higbee.cots.net/Holtej//klingon/KLCP/index.htm
>
>noylaw'bogh tlhIngan Hol jatlhwI'vaD tetlh tu'lu', 'ach Dachbej nuv
>law' 'ej naQbe' De':
>http://www.kli.org/wiki/index.php?Klingonists%20of%20Note
>(tlhIngan Hol DajatlhlaHchugh tetlhvamvaD yIchel'eghqu'!)
>
>tlhIngan Hol jatlhwI'pu' po'qu' vIqIH vIneHbej.  wa' qepHomvaD neH
>jIjeSta' 'ach not qep'a'Daq jISaH.[3]
>
>toH, tlhIngan Hol jatlhwI'pu' po'qu' mI' DanoHDI' nuq 'oH mI''e'?
>
>[1] - I wanted to say "[Sometimes it's even claimed that] someone is
>one of the twelve [fluent speakers]".  {wa'maH cha''e' wa' ghaH
>vay''e'}?  Also, this is one time I wish I was speaking Morskan: so I
>can emphasise the {vay''e'}.
>[2] - Has {pabpo'} never appeared in canon?  Strange, I'm sure
>everyone understands it.  I did find it in something written by {HoD
>Qanqor}.
>[3] - I wanted to say "I haven't been yet" but {wej}... oh, {wej}, why
>do you mean both "not yet" and "three"?
>[4] - My first attempt at "How many [fluent speakers] do you think
>there are?" was {jatlhwI'pu' po'qu' 'ar DanoH?}  But this is obviously
>wrong, as it means "how many fluent speakers do you judge/estimate?"
>(i.e., you're judging/estimating the speakers, not how many of them
>there are).  I could've just gone with {'ar tu'lu'} "how many are
>there?", but I wanted to express "in your opinion/estimation", though
>perhaps that's something that Klingons would not be culturally
>inclined to add (if you ask someone a question without a clear answer,
>_of course_ the answer is their opinion/estimation).  Would {'ar
>tu'lu'law'?} have worked?  TKD 4.2.6 says {-law'} expresses
>uncertainty on the _speaker's_ part, so it's bit weird to attach it to
>a question.
>
>--
>De'vID
>
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