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

[Rohan Fenwick - QeS 'utlh]

ghItlhpu' De'vID, jatlh:
> toH, tlhIngan Hol jatlhwI'pu' po'qu' mI' DanoHDI' nuq 'oH mI''e'?

As others have said, it's fuzzy and depends on your definition. At
qep'a' last year a couple of the Worldcon beginners asked me and pagh
this very question. We put our best guess at perhaps twenty to thirty
people capable of having an extended conversation with no dictionary
at hand. That's really only a best guess, based on the assumption that
most people who learn the language long enough wind up making their
way to the KLI - which may be wrong. The gold pins also aren't much
use to judge; there are some great speakers who've not yet passed the
level 3 exam (are there stats on how many have passed each test?). But
either way, with the growth of Klingon in Europe in the last little
while I'd say the 1996 estimate of 12 is well and truly out of date.
About 30 conversational speakers is still pretty close, I guess.

QeS 'utlh