Recently it came up in conversation about whether there are "generations" of Klingon speakers. (It came up because I have a son, who now knows a little bit of Klingon.) This made me think of a message I sent way back in 2013 (quoted in entirety) below, which didn't get a lot of responses at the time. (Just four other people supplied their info, which isn't enough to build a detailed picture.) Do people think of (abstract, not biological) "generations" of Klingon speakers? For example, participants in the first few {qep'a'}s seem to form one "generation". I have never been to a {qep'a'}, but I have met several 1st-geners in person, and I joined the mailing list quite early and have participated several times in Lieven's qepHom'a'. So I feel like I'm a 2nd-gener. More recently, there has been something of a boom in interest in Klingon (starting around the time Star Trek Into Darkness came out in 2013), and to me they feel a little bit like another "generation" of speakers. (And maybe there have been multiple, but I haven't noticed.) Does anyone else see things that way? Anyway, I wish I had a social graph of Klingon speakers showing how people know each other (in real life, virtually, etc.) so we can visually see what the community connections look like. Also, I wonder how many children of Klingon speakers also speak Klingon? Are there any biological 3rd-generation Klingon speakers yet (and if not, when will that happen)? On Sat, 9 Feb 2013 at 08:51, De'vID <de.vid.jonpin@gmail.com> wrote:

When people find out I speak Klingon, I am sometimes asked (as I'm sure you all are) how many people in the world can carry out a conversation in it. Previously I've given an answer like "about 20-30", which is what the Internet claims.

Someone suggested to me that I may actually be able to get a better number, since Klingon speakers are highly likely to be a tightly connected social graph. There's a clique[1] of KLI members (likely the core qep'a' attendees), then a probably larger number of people who have spoken with someone in the clique (but not to everyone in the clique), and maybe a few who are two degrees of separation away. Then there may be other smaller cliques like with Germany qepHom participants, or various other qepHommey, or Klingon clubs like Khomerex Klinzhai or KAG or KIDC.

In the interest of science, and also because the list of Klingonists on the KLI website is outdated and no longer accessible, can everyone list the people with whom they've carried out a conversation in Klingon in person?

By "conversation" I mean both parties spoke at least one entire sentence in Klingon to the other one, which was understood and replied to; and in turn understood and replied in Klingon in a timely fashion to at least one entire sentence spoken in Klingon. And by "entire sentence" I mean something with a properly prefixed verb (i.e., more than just {nuqneH?} or {Qapla'}). By "in a timely fashion" I mean without spending minutes composing each sentence. By "in person" I mean either physically face-to-face, or over the phone or Skype or Google+ Hangout (i.e., the conversation took place in voice, rather than by typing). I'm being a bit pedantic here, but I want to make sure everyone is talking about approximately the same thing.

I'll start. The people I've carried out a conversation in Klingon with are: - Holtej - 'ISqu' - Philip Newton - Qanqor - Qov - Alex Greene - maybes: Lieven, Felix, Zrajm

Lieven is an edge case for me, because while we spoke in Klingon to each other at the qepHom, there were beginners around and he paused to explain each sentence to them. So I don't think it counts as a proper conversation. But I'm sure if there were no beginners around we could've carried out a conversation entirely in Klingon. And also, I know that he has carried out a conversation entirely in Klingon with Qov.

I may also have had conversations with Felix and Zrajm. I definitely spoke an entire sentence in Klingon to each one, and I think each one has spoken an entire sentence in Klingon to me. But I don't think we went back-and-forth in Klingon in a conversational manner, without mixing in sentences in English, so I'm not counting them. (Unless the two of you remember otherwise, in which case correct me.)

I also had several "one-sided conversations" at the Saarbrucken qepHom where I spoke entirely in Klingon, and the other person replied in English, or sometimes even in Klingon, but only after spending several minutes consulting with a dictionary or with other people, so those don't count as "conversations" by my above definition.

I can already make a good case for ten conversant Klingon speakers in the world based on just people I've spoken with, and I know of several more by reputation, so I'm beginning to think 20 is a low estimate, although it'll be interesting to see if we can reach 30.

[1] - I mean in the graph theoretical sense ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clique_(graph_theory) ), but I suppose also in the social science sense. In layman's terms, there is a number of KLI members, each of whom has had a conversation with every other.

-- De'vID

-- De'vID