Dad Spoke Only Klingon To Son For Three Years

[Marilyn. 340]

d'Armond Speers, a Minnesota man, spoke only Klingon to his son for the first three years of his child's life, the Minnesota Daily reports.

Speers says that he spent the first few years of his son's life speaking to him in the invented language of the alien race featured in the series "Star Trek" in order to better understand how children learn languages. Meanwhile, Speers' wife continued to address the child in English.

He told the Minnesota Daily,

"I was interested in the question of whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would acquire it like any human language. [...] He was definitely starting to learn it."

Speers reports he "still gets nostalgic when he recalls singing the Klingon lullaby 'May the Empire Endure'" with his son.

Listen to Speers' son singing the Klingon Imperial Anthem here.

Wired reported on Speers' language experiment in a 1999 article in which Speers described the challenge of speaking to his infant son given that the Klingon alphabet lacked words such as "diaper" and "bottle."

The article notes,

"So Speers found himself using "thing which is flat" for table. "Alec very rarely spoke back to me in Klingon, although when he did, his pronunciation was excellent and he never confused English words with Klingon words," Speers says."

Eventually, Speers gave up on Klingon communication, saying that his son "stopped listening to me when I spoke in Klingon" and "it was clear that he didn't enjoy it, and I didn't want to make it into a problem."

His son, now in high school, doesn't speak a word of Klingon, according to the Minnesota Daily.

Despite his interest in Klingon, Speers says he's not a Star Trek fanatic.

"I don't go to 'Star Trek' conventions, I don't wear the fake forehead. [...] I'm a linguist."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/19/d...e_n_363477.html

Edited November 20, 2009 by Marilyn.

[Nagishkaw 510]

That's just nuts.

[Niels Bohr 72]

This guy is so irresponsible.

[caybee 21]

I'd be interested to know what effect if any being raised essentially bilingual for the first three years of his life, even with an invented second language, has had on the son's ability to learn other languages. It's my understanding that Klingon is as much a language as Esperanto is, so I don't see any harm in what the dad did, especially since he said he didn't push his son when it was clear his son didn't enjoy communicating in Klingon. But if he wanted to start him on a useful second language while he was young enough to absorb it easily, something like Spanish or Mandarin might have been a better choice in the long run.

[Niels Bohr 72]

He wasn't raised bilingual though. Heck, I was raised bilingual.

Edited November 20, 2009 by Niels Bohr

[tallcoolone 102]

Sounds like the dad was / is a major nerd.

Probably got his ####### beat up one too many times back in High School..........

[HAL 9000 96]

This guy is so irresponsible.

Yep. He should have also spoken Vulcan and Romulan to the kid.

[LoriLawless 0]

This guy is so irresponsible.

Yep. He should have also spoken Vulcan and Romulan to the kid.

[Sandrila 1]

what a goofball

[mawilson 2,133]

Name: ...

Date of Birth: ...

Native Language: Klingon

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Sort of related...growing up, I thought my name was Goddammit and brother was Jesus Christ.

[HAL 9000 96]

Sort of related...growing up, I thought my name was Goddammit and brother was Jesus Christ.

Steven =

Qun ghuy'LOL

Found at http://www.kli.org/tlh/newwords.html

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Sort of related...growing up, I thought my name was Goddammit and brother was Jesus Christ.

Steven =

Qun ghuy'LOL

Found at http://www.kli.org/tlh/newwords.html

It just doesn't have the same zing.

[HAL 9000 96]

Put an exclamation at the end.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I think all adults should be comfortable with at least two languages.