Klingon

Contents

tlhIngan Hol (Klingon Language) in the Klingon pIqaD script.
tlhIngan Hol (Klingon Language) in the Klingon pIqaD script.


The Klingon language is an artificial language spoken by the Klingons, a fictional alien race part of the Star Trek universe. It was designed in the 80's by Marc Okrand for Paramount Pictures. Klingon is the the most spoken artificial language.


Script

The Klingon language uses 26 phonemes, each of which can be represented by 1 - 3 latin characters. However, the "proper" klingon script is called "pIqaD".

The Klingon alphabet in latin script.
The Klingon alphabet in latin script.
The Klingon alphabet in Klingon pIqaD script.
The Klingon alphabet in Klingon pIqaD script.



Fonts

Since the Klingon script is not part of the unicode standard, it is mapped in the private area of the Unicode space (U+F8D0 to U+F8FF).

If you use Eatoni tools to either post on blogs or send emails, you will need fonts that support these codepoints.

Feel free to download and use the following free fonts (but not sell or alter them) as they are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.

Note that the Klingon Latin fonts uses the same codepoints as the pIqaD script, but will render the alien script in Latin characters for users not versed in the pIqaD script.

To download the fonts Right click -> Save target as... on the links.


BDF fonts

Creative Commons License


TTF fonts

(To install these fonts on Windows XP, go to Start -> Control Panel -> Fonts. From the menu "File" click on "Install New Font..." browse to find the file you downloaded, select it and press OK)

Creative Commons License


Fonts can also be purchased from the Klingon Language Institute.


Windows Text Entry


Even with proper Klingon fonts, you will have a hard time typing in Windows without special software. An easy and free way to type in Klingon is using Eatoni's EQ3 Klingon Windows Demo.


Visit our demo page to download the demo. Enter the klingon text using Eatoni's WordWise or LetterWise text prediction systems, then go to the "Edit" menu and click on "Copy". Both the Klingon unicode characters as well as a Latin transliteration will be copied to your windows clipboard. All you have to do is paste the text to your favorite text Editor.


If you want to send the copied text using outlook express, create a new message, make sure you select "Format -> Rich Text (HTML)", then paste the Klingon text, select the Klingon characters (which probably appeared as squares) with your mouse, and choose a Klingon font from the drop-down font menu. You need to have already installed a Klingon font on your system for this procedure.


Klingon EQ3

The Klingon version of Eatoni's EQ3 keyboard is based on the Latin version with the keys assigned based on the Latin transliteration. For complex letters the following equivalences were used to determine which keys hold them:

ch -> c (ZXCV key)
gh -> g (MG key)
ng -> f (DF key)
tlh -> x (ZXCV key)
-> z (ZXCV key)




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