Mothership tongues

[thebitterguy]

[Poll #762213]

Really, I don't know anyone personally who speaks Esperanto (one person who's, well, kinda crazy/evil), and neither do any of my KAG friends speak Klingon fluently (but they can all order a beer).

But I'm just curious as to what the gathered hordes think.

Oh, yeah: if you feel like it, please justify your response.

Comments

[thebitterguy]

You see, personally, Klingon is the more 'normal' of the two, from my perspective. Klingons are, well, fairly garden variety folk, as costumers/fans go. It just seems like something that'll catch someone's fancy and, the next thing you know, you've got a rubber headgear, leather outfits, and can call Qaapla with the best of them.

Now, Esperanto just seems odd. It seems at this moment almost a remnant of something, culturally. From what I know it seems to be almost a League of Nations re-creationist movement, the sort of thing that you'd find out is spoken by the guy who keeps saying "I want my air car" even though the joke's amusemnt factor ebbed out five years ago. It seems somewhat propeller beanie, if that makes any sense.

Now, it's a tough call, but there you go.

[mightygodking.livejournal.com]

It is very simple. If you are a guy, which will get you more pussy?

The answer, sadly, is Klingon. You can probably find a lonely Klingon to fuck at a convention, if you are so inclined. But who the hell considers Esperanto a turn-on?

And there you have it. Esperanto is geekier.

[thebitterguy]

According to terminal_pariah, Esperanto may not only be useful for getting tail, but Brazillian tail.

Most impressive.

[terheyt.livejournal.com]

I know a couple of language majors. Not any specific language, but languages in general (most are aiming to become translators and diplomatic aides). They are expected to be able to converse in 8-10 by graduation. Many take Esperanto as a stepping stone to others, and because it counts towards that total.

I have yet to hear of Klingon being taught at University. Learning it has few-to-no real world applications outside of geek circles.

I vote Klingon.

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

Man. I voted, but now I'm not sure of my answer. It depends on what you mean by geeky.

Klingon is geeky because it represents a fascination or obsession based on fun and fandom and imagination. But Esperanto is geekier because modern speakers of it are probably lovers of history and politics and linguistics and real-world oddities in general.

One is for fan-geeks and the other is for learning-geeks.

[doc-mystery.livejournal.com]

Your poll is set up incorrectly.

It's blindingly obvious that Esperanto is Nerdier, and Klingon is Geekier.

::B::

[thebitterguy]

True. But that brings in the Nerd/Geek dichotomy, and that really requires even more explanation I'm too lazy to do.

[waiwode.livejournal.com]

One of the less intelligent Army guys I knew summed it up perfectly:

"You may speak French, you may speak Russian, you may even speak Chinese. But it's going to be a couple hundred years before you need to speak Klingon."

Doug.

[terminal-pariah.livejournal.com]

Seeing as how I spoke both pretty well in the grade 8 - 11 era, I think I qualify for MegaNerd status.

You have to consider that Esperanto is really only geeky/obscure in North America. In China, Japan, Hungary, Poland, and Brazil it's inching closer and closer to the mainstream, to the point where some bus terminals in Brazil have their signage in Portugese, English and Esperanto.

And in response to an earlier comment re: secks, there are plenty of Esperanto conferences full of sexy, young Esperantists. There are more than a few native Esperanto speakers in the world because people meet at conferences, fall in love, get married... and with Esperanto as their common tongue, their kids grow up in an Esperanto household.

So, I guess my answer is that Klingon has geek status worldwide but Esperanto could get you laid if you were willing to cross an ocean.

Also, Esperanto sounds as sexy as Italian. Klingon sounds as sexy as choking.

[uhlrik.livejournal.com]

Some people think choking is sexy, actually. I'm not one of those, but they're sadly real.

Esperanto, as lame as it is, actually has a use outside of sheer geektude, though it was a major inspiration behind NewSpeak. Klingon only has use among the "elite?" of Trek fandom.

[thebitterguy]

I have heard anecdotes of Klingon being used as a common language between people who have no other languages in common, so that's got to count for something.

I don't assume there will ever come a time when "Does anyone here speak Klingon?" will be a phrase thta can be uttered while retaining one's dignity.

[redeem147.livejournal.com]

I voted for Esperanto. I know a lot of Klingons, but I don't know any Esperantans.

[etherlad.livejournal.com]

What about D'ni (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%27ni_language)?

[thebitterguy]

I had to draw a line. If I'd included D'ni, then someone would say "where's Elvish?" Then, someone would complain about my omission of Thanagarian, or Dutch.

[etherlad.livejournal.com]

Touché.

[terminal-pariah.livejournal.com]

What about Loglan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loglan)? Supposedly, a Loglan meeting involves sitting around waiting for someone to be able to form a sentence. That sentence is uttered, and then everyone discusses its construction in English or whatever their preferred language happens to be. Pretty geeky, I'd say.

Solresol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solresol) is probably my favourite, though. I dream of the day that I will be able to communicate via slide whistle. Lord help you people if I ever become Prime Minister.

[mollpeartree.livejournal.com]

I voted for Esperanto because with Klingon, speaking it might be at least partially a result of socializing with Trekkies. I think anything that has a social dimension is automatically less geeky than something that doesn't. Unless there are Esperanto clubs all over the place that I just haven't heard about.

[terminal-pariah.livejournal.com]

They're called Esperanto Circles. The Toronto Esperanto Circle averaged about ten people at its weekly socializing meetings, but I haven't been in a few years.

[thebitterguy]

A) What is Esperanto for "I'd hit that"?

B) Did you ever meet a guy named Pierre Savoie?

[terminal-pariah.livejournal.com]

a) It's been a while (since Esperanto, not... hitting something), but I would say "mi seksumus tion" (I would 'f*ck' that). That's pretty bad... I'm rusty.

b) I'll e-mail you about that.

Esperanto and klingon

[(Anonymous)]

They are not comparable. Esperanto is quite a normal language, one in which you read literature (http://donh.best.vwh.net/Esperanto/Literaturo/), listen to music (http://www.musicexpress.com.br/stilo.asp?stilo=36), hear radio (http://radioarkivo.org/), tell jokes (http://personal.telefonica.terra.es/web/tdb/humor.htm) and have talks. I do speak it, far more fluently than English.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/4.08/es.languages.html (6 pages)
"Estimates of the number of Esperanto speakers worldwide range wildly, from 50,000 to 10 million, but 1 million seems like a reasonable guess - about as many as speak Estonian."
""All the fluent Klingon speakers can comfortably go out to dinner together," Lawrence Schoen, director of the Klingon Language Institute, cheerfully admits. There are about a dozen of them"

And finally:
"Every national tongue, if proposed as a lingua franca, has the faint stench of imperialism. (...) If there is ever to be a true international vernacular, it will probably have to be an artificial language. And though Esperanto seems to be on the wane, it still stands as the embodiment of that possibility. If Esperanto is nothing else, it is widespread: speakers live in more than a hundred nations."

Toño
http://personal.telefonica.terra.es/web/tdb/blogo.htm