Wednesday, July 21, 2010

San Diego Recognizes Klingon as Official Language


In a bold move, the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS) has traded all of the English signage posted at Gaslamp Trolley Station for those written in Klingon.

Some may view this as a simple publicity stunt for the annual Comic Con held at the San Diego Convention Center, but others think it has a deeper meaning.

As mentioned, the English signs at the station have been removed. This forces transit users to either learn Klingon, or remain in the dark. Anti-Spanish language groups have been supporting this approach for years (although, with English signs).

By having Klingon as the only language at the station, San Diego has declared that Klingon is not only an officially recognized language, but one that it feels enough of its citizens and visitors are fluent in that it is the only one needed.
And since the United States has no official language, there is nothing forcing the MTS to post English signs.

As a San Diego native, I find this approach refreshing.

This is a major breakthrough for not only Klingon, but all conlangs. This is a major step down a very long road.

With official backing from the State, local California businesses can't be far behind.




Klingon translations were provided by Steven Boozer, Chris Lipscombe, and Michael Roney, Jr.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

In snopes, this fake story occurs in Portland, OR:

http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/klingon.asp

Melanie said...

@Anonymous

Um, this isn't a fake story.
And besides the language involved, it doesn't resemble that other article.

Allan Winston said...

I sincerely apologize. I was up last night past the point of exhaustion and got the story on this page confused with this story:
http://tinyurl.com/2ugdq4v

I have a severely impaired sense of humor. Is the latter story satire?

Allan