31 replies to this topic

[stiperules!ok]

OMG this is so sad............


Moviefone UK Weird World
Dad Teaches His Son Klingon Instead of English
November 19, 2009 |By: Pete Stanton
Remember having to learn French at school? Tough wasn't it? Well spare a thought for the poor son of linguist, d'Armon Speers, who was taught nothing but Klingon for the first three years of his life.
"I was interested in the question of whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would acquire it like any human language," Speers told the Minnesota Daily. "He was definitely starting to learn it."
Now strange and, well, disturbing, as this story is, it turns out that Mr Speers isn't even a fan of the Star Trek franchise. Which would at least have been some sort of excuse for his deranged language experiment (not a great excuse, admittedly). "I don't go to 'Star Trek' conventions," says Mr Speers defiantly. "I don't wear the fake forehead. I'm a linguist."
Thankfully, the good news from this strange tale is that d'Armon Speers' son is at high school now - and doesn't speak a word of Klingon. Which hopefully should send out a strong message to any other new parents out there considering putting their offspring through a potential geek nightmare.

[Sweet Fanny Addams]

stiperules!ok said:

OMG this is so sad............


Moviefone UK Weird World
Dad Teaches His Son Klingon Instead of English
November 19, 2009 |By: Pete Stanton
Remember having to learn French at school? Tough wasn't it? Well spare a thought for the poor son of linguist, d'Armon Speers, who was taught nothing but Klingon for the first three years of his life.
"I was interested in the question of whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would acquire it like any human language," Speers told the Minnesota Daily. "He was definitely starting to learn it."
Now strange and, well, disturbing, as this story is, it turns out that Mr Speers isn't even a fan of the Star Trek franchise. Which would at least have been some sort of excuse for his deranged language experiment (not a great excuse, admittedly). "I don't go to 'Star Trek' conventions," says Mr Speers defiantly. "I don't wear the fake forehead. I'm a linguist."
Thankfully, the good news from this strange tale is that d'Armon Speers' son is at high school now - and doesn't speak a word of Klingon. Which hopefully should send out a strong message to any other new parents out there considering putting their offspring through a potential geek nightmare.

There is an actual Klingon language? I will never understand some people. He might as well wear the fake forehead. Linguist, my ass. Whack.

[Mary]

This guy sounds like an idiot.

[In the Corner]

Mary said:

This guy sounds like an idiot.

No kidding.  I would have taught my baby Tolkien's Elvish instead.

[Hezalin]

People liek thus should not be allowed to reproduce. it's like he had a kid jsut to experiment with him. sighhhhh........

[Sweet Fanny Addams]

I am still trying to get my head round the idea that there's an official Klingon language. Anybody know where I can find out about that? :confused:

[Sweet Fanny Addams]

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YW.

[OneArpeggioPete]

Sweet Fanny Addams said:

I am still trying to get my head round the idea that there's an official Klingon language. Anybody know where I can find out about that? :confused:

and there was me thinking that was common knowledge... (i honestly did) this'll tell you a lot about the language:

http://en.wikipedia....lingon_language

it's pretty fascinating as a concept really. but then as an undergrad i knew any number of people who owned klingon dictionaries...

:-)

oneArpeggiopete:cool:

[Sweet Fanny Addams]

Um kay. Live and learn.
I still think that man D'armon Speers qualifies for the fake forehead.  What kind of fucking name is D'armon anyway? Lhoooser..












BTW I couldn't read all of the wiki stuff, but thanks for posting the link, Astrid.

[musicbrain_5]

For some reason this reminds me of Weird Al's song "White N' NERDY" :)



...Maybe because Klingon is mentioned in the song...

[fanfan]

I think this piece of news must be totally made up, when you google the name of this 'linguist' the only results are this news item! Very unusual for someone who has a 'doctorate in computational linguistic' and is a 'self-employed software consultant' as it says in some of the articles.

In fact it seems to me that this story only exists to promote the Klingon dictionary that has been developed:

http://www.mndaily.c...ngon-dictionary

[kohoutekdriver8]

Didn't someone translate the Bible into Klingon?

[Tuppenny]

OneArpeggioPete said:

and there was me thinking that was common knowledge... (i honestly did) this'll tell you a lot about the language:

http://en.wikipedia....lingon_language

it's pretty fascinating as a concept really. but then as an undergrad i knew any number of people who owned klingon dictionaries...

:-)

oneArpeggiopete:cool:

I knew about klingon language, I think maybe it is common knowledge... amongst geeks.

[OneArpeggioPete]

Tuppenny said:

I knew about klingon language, I think maybe it is common knowledge... amongst geeks.

that might actually make sense, yes...

and here we have his best buddy's wedding picture:
http://us.st12.yimg....s_2031_24346083

:p

oh dear... oh dear oh dear oh dear...

:-)

oneArpeggiopete:cool:

Edited by OneArpeggioPete, 21 November 2009 - 04:51 PM.

[capi]

Awesome!

Unless the father managed to control the "experiment" to the extent that the child never had any opportunity to hear or communicate in any other language, then no harm done. And he didn't. Children who learn more than one language have a better grasp of how language works than unilinguals do, so the kid is probably better off for it.

I'm thinking it would be really hard to do this as I would imagine the Klingon language would have a pretty limited vocabulary of words typically used in a child's first years of life.

As an experiment, I'm curious about whether the father learned anything new to the field of linguistics. Don't know enough about Klingon to know if there would be anything different that would set this experiment apart from those with other kids who are raised with 2 languages.

I guess that makes me a linguistics geek.

[OneArpeggioPete]

totally with you there, actually. and, btw, more bizarre experiments have been performed by scientists on their children. this one is a particular favourite of mine:

http://www.spring.or...hen-tickled.php

and i dare say it would be hard to communicate with a baby in klingon ebcause the language is largely based on expressions of aggression. if it really did happen i'd love to talk to the guy.

:-)

oneArpeggiopete:cool:

[capi]

haha, never heard of that one before.  I dare say I would have cracked like the mother did!  Kind of interesting though that the laugh response is innate, since prolonged tickling can be more torture than fun, even if you're unable to stop laughing.

[OneArpeggioPete]

true, yeah. pain and pleasure... apparently there was that guy in the nineteenth century who tied his wife to a chair and tickled her into madness.

:-)

oneArpeggiopete:cool:

[Kelly A]

fanfan said:

I think this piece of news must be totally made up, when you google the name of this 'linguist' the only results are this news item! Very unusual for someone who has a 'doctorate in computational linguistic' and is a 'self-employed software consultant' as it says in some of the articles.

In fact it seems to me that this story only exists to promote the Klingon dictionary that has been developed:

http://www.mndaily.c...ngon-dictionary

Interesting. What a QI'yaH.

Edited by Kelly A, 21 November 2009 - 05:54 PM.

[capi]

Kelly A said:

Interesting. What a QI'yaH.

Doch SoH!