The current standard way of speaking, the ta' Hol, is the variety of Klingon associated with the First City on Kronos, and this is the form of the language taught to most non-Klingons, as if there were no other way to speak. This is not at all surprising, since most visitors to the Empire restrict their stay to this one city and have very little knowledge of other parts of the Empire. In the past, this was due to travel restrictions imposed by the Klingon government, though now, perhaps because residents of the First City have become accustomed to dealing with tourists and their habits, visitors simply tend to feel somewhat more comfortable there than they do elsewhere and they avoid wandering too far away.

Those unfamiliar with other parts of the Empire are likewise unfamiliar with the different dialects found in the various regions and are therefore unprepared when they hear unfamiliar speech patterns. For the most part, dialects in the various regions differ owing to specifics of pronunciation, but there are grammatical and vocabulary distinctions as well. The differences range from being rather subtle to being quite noticeable. Indeed, there are a few dialects that are so different from one another that speakers of one can barely communicate with speakers of the other. In those cases, if it were not for the fact that the Empire is a political whole, and, ever since the days of Kahless, has taken great pride in being so, the so-called dialects might be considered separate languages.

It is not possible to survey all of the regional dialects here, particularly the most divergent ones, but some of the kinds of differences that exist and that are likely to be encountered are illustrated. Before we focus on the linguistic peculiarities of some of the different areas, however, a very brief discussion of Klingon geography would seem to be in order. The Klingon Homeworld Qo'noS, usually rendered Kronos in Federation Standard, is a planet with basically one very large mass of land surrounded by ocean; perhaps continent is a comparable concept. Within the land mass are distinct areas, some of which are demarcated geographically (divided by a mountain range, for example), while the boundaries of others seem rather arbitrary, the result, no doubt, of ancient power struggles. A specific area whose borders are definable, by whatever means, is normally called a Sep, commonly translated as "region," though, since the regions were politically distinct in the past, "country" might have at one time been just as appropriate a translation. An identifiable area within a Sep is a yoS ("area, district"), and a yoS usually contains at least one important veng ("city"); though sometimes, especially in the more rugged parts of a planet, there may be only a small settlement or vengHom ["village"]). This terminology is also used when describing other planets within the Empire.

Regions are sometimes identified by the name of the most prominent city within the region. Thus, the region containing the First City is simply called veng wa'DIch Sep ("First City region") and voSpegh Sep ("Vospeg region," southwest of the First City---to use directional [[p.17]] terms familiar to speakers of Federation Standard) is named after the city of Vospeg. Other regions have names that are distinct from the names of any districts or cities within them, such as the large Sa'Qej Sep ("Sakrej region"), several thousand kilometers east of the First City. The origins of most Klingon place names are not known, having been lost to history. Sometimes, however, the meaning of a place name is clear, such as the Sakrej region's HuD beQ yoS ("Flat Mountain district") and, of course, veng wa'DIch ("First City"). On rare occasion, a place's name can be traced to an individual or family, such as Qotmagh Sep ("Krotmag region"), derived from Qotmagh, the leader of a powerful house who, centuries ago, conquered neighboring areas, or ruq'e'vet ("Ruk'- evet"), a city in the ghevchoq Sep ("Gevchok region"), named for a warrior (whether actual or mythological is a matter of dispute) who singlehandedly defeated an invading force.

Before the time of the unification of the Empire by Kahless, the amount of interaction between inhabitants of different regions varied. When regions formed coalitions in a campaign against a common enemy, interaction was great; when they were in a period of mutual antagonism, interaction was limited. Since interaction involves people communicating with one another, this varying amount of contact is reflected in the linguistic situation. Dialects spoken in any given pair of regions have some common features (vocabulary or pronunciations, for example), developed during the periods when the people had a great deal of interaction with one another; and these same dialects have some clear differences, developed during times of discord when contact was minimal.

In addition to the regions on Kronos (and there are more than those mentioned above), of course, are the various planets that have become part of the Empire. On some, such as Morska, a dialect of Klingon has all but [[p.18]] replaced any languages originally spoken; on others, such as Vaq'aj II, native languages survive alongside ta' Hol. Interestingly, the dialects of Klingon spoken on conquered planets are not as different from ta' Hol as are some of the dialects on Kronos itself. That is because the Klingon language came to the conquered planets relatively recently and therefore remains somewhat similar to that spoken by the conquerors, while the dialects on Kronos have been spoken for a much longer period and have had time to develop differently.

Because the dialect of the First City is the standard dialect, the ta' Hol, it is both customary and convenient to compare other dialects to it rather than to each other. This practice is retained in the discussions below.