[tlhIngan Hol] tlhIngan Hol DajatlhtaHvIS nItlhejpu' 'Iv? / Counting conversant speakers

[Iikka Hauhio]

The issue of fluency is interesting. I can speak somewhat fluently about many topics, but then I struggle with many other topics. Either because I don't know the words or because the words don't even exist in Klingon.

Since I have learned most from jawmeH qep, I can speak well about certain specific topics common for those meetings, but some other areas of vocabulary I simply don't use. For example, my knowledge of scifi and war terminology is embarassinly low since we don't talk about those things in the meetings even though they are central parts of the Klingon language.

The same applies of course to every other language I speak. I know Swedish well enough to attend university lectures in Swedish, but if you gave me a book of prose and asked me to translate it to Swedish, I probably couldn't. I can mostly talk about technical things in my field, since that is what I use the language for. I can understand Swedish prose, but I become unsure when I actually need to write it.

As a test of fluency, I was once suggested a survival test: can you survive in a foreign city using only their native language? Of course that is a very low bar to meet: you can often almost survive with gestures only. And there aren't any Klingon cities. But there are meetups where you can speak only Klingon. If you can live speaking only Klingon, and satisfiably express yourself to others, then your skill is high enough.

fergusq

------- Original Message -------
On Sunday, April 23rd, 2023 at 18.25, Lieven L. Litaer via tlhIngan-Hol <tlhingan-hol at lists.kli.org> wrote:


> The main problem here is: What does it mean to speak fluently?
> 
> I have noticed that even the most experienced, high-ranking Klingonists
> I have ever met still have problems to catch up with the new vocabulary,
> and even make mistakes with old words.
> 
> On the other hand, there are people who have just followed a year of
> Duolingo and can easily make simple cdonversations.
> 
> So saying that, the number of speakers moves between your 20 up to
> probably thousands. It's really hard to say. But what is for sure is
> that the number has increased.
> 
> This could easily be checked by creating a level-test, but
> unfortunately, the KLCP is absolutely out-of-date. It doesn't prove
> anything.
> 
> Being an experienced speaker of foreign languages, I define being fluent
> on a much ower level, and therefore accapt also beginners as being
> called "speakers". From that point of view, my guess of "speakers" is
> about one thousand. Don't forget the number of hidden speakers which we
> will never meet because they live utside of Facebook and emails.
> 
> 
> --
> Lieven L. Litaer
> aka the "Klingon Teacher from Germany"
> http://www.tlhInganHol.com
> klingon.wiki/En/FluentSpeakers
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