Compiled by E.T.

Disclaimer 1:

I am not a linguist. The following is correct to the absolute best of my knowledge, but may contain inaccuracies either due to oversimplification or due to my own understanding being coloured by the languages I have studied.

Disclaimer 2:

Linguistics is not an exact science. The exact meaning of many of the following terms may vary by language. Much of this terminology was developed to describe Indo-European languages and may already be of limited applicability for other families of Earth natural languages, let alone an alien language like Klingon. Whether or not a certain term can/should be used to describe Klingon can therefore be contentious. Similarly, it may be possible to describe aspects of the language in more than one way.

Disclaimer 3:

This glossary uses terms generally in usage by Terran linguists and grammarians. Not all of these terms have been used by Marc Okrand to describe aspects of the Klingon language. Some Klingonists may therefore refuse to use them or deny their applicability. This glossary is simply intended to give Klingonists without much prior knowledge of linguistic terms an overview of terms in use by the community. This glossary is also not aiming at general completeness; it attempts to list only the terms in any way applicable to Klingon, though some that are not may be included for contrast.

Phonology: the study of speech sounds

Fundamental concepts:

Phoneme:

A speech sound

Phonemic:

Said about a sound or group of sounds that is meaningfully distinguished from another sound in a language. For example, English has phonemic (meaning that using a [b] or a [p] can change a word’s meaning), but not phonemic (meaning that using [p] or [ph], without or with a puff of air, does not change the meaning).

Contrast:

Two are said to contrast if they are considered two different sounds in a language. The above example could be phrased as [b] and [p] contrasting in English, while [p] and [ph] do not. Can also be used for grammatical features or words, not just phonemes.

Allophone:

A that is not meaningfully distinguished from another phoneme in a language. For example, aspirated [ph] and unaspirated [p] in English are allophones and do not contrast (i.e. [tap] and [thaph] and all variations in-between are the same word), but they do contrast in Scottish Gaelic and are therefore in that language.

Allophonic vs. free variation:

Technically, allophones are used in different contexts. For example, English has a tendency to use aspirated [ph] at the beginning of words or and unaspirated [p] at the end of words, in or at the beginning of unstressed syllables. This is a true allophone. In some cases, the variation is more random, where even the same speaker might use more than one pronunciation of the same phoneme, like the pronunciations of “either” and “neither” as [’(n)i:ð] or [’(n)að]. This is called free variation, but is often included in allophonic variation as well.

IPA:

The International Phonetic Alphabet, a mostly Latin- and Greek-based way to encode all possible speech sounds in human languages. Contrary to simply using, say, the Latin alphabet, the IPA denotes the exact pronunciation of a sound, whereas the Latin letter “j”, f. ex., stands for very different sounds in English, French, German or Spanish.

Broad transcription:

Includes only the most notable phonetic features, leaving out non- distinctions

Narrow transcription:

Includes more details of exact realisation of each phoneme, even if these are not ; broad to narrow is a spectrum.

Phonemic transcription:

Focuses on the abstract mental distinctions that speakers make, results in a particularly broad transcription that ignores allophones and (most) dialectal differences, i. e. will transcribe a Krotmag speaker using ta Hol.

Phonetic transcription:

A transcription that focuses more on how something is actually pronounced, f. ex. by including dialectal differences, but the level of detail may still result in either a broad or narrow transcription. Phonemic vs. phonetic is a conceptual and therefore binary distinction.

Transcription delimiters:

IPA is usually either marked by slashes // or square brackets []. Technically, slashes denote phonemic notation and square brackets phonetic notation, but the distinction may also be used for broad vs. narrow transcription. Some also use them interchangeably.

Example:

The word “pity” is phonemically transcribed as /pti/, no matter how a speaker pronounces it. A broad phonetic transcription would be [’pti] in RP and [’pi] in GA. A narrow transcription would be [’phti] in RP and [’phi] in AE. A phonemic transcription in AE of the word “hamster” is /’hæmst/, while the phonetic transcription would include the “p” that most speakers insert (see ), so [’hæmpst].

Phonemic inventory:

The full list of used by a language. May be split into and inventory.

Sound categories

Consonant:

pronounced with complete or partial closure of the .

Vowel:

pronounced without any closure of the vocal tract. Usually the of a .

Semivowel, semiconsonant, glide:

A phoneme that is similar to a vowel but functions as rather than its nucleus. Used in Klingon as a possible way to analyse as a combination of vowel and semivowel. In this case, the letters w and y, usually used as , denote the semivowels [] and [], which are pronounced the same as the vowels [u] and [i].

Monophthong:

A single

Diphthong, vowel glide:

Combination of two adjacent vowel sounds into one syllable, as in Klingon words like maw or yay, unless these are seen as a combination of and

Fronting vs. backing:

Whether the second vowel is pronounced more to the front or the back than the first (see ). Could be used to describe Klingon diphthongs that end in y vs. those that end in w.

Monograph:

A single letter that represents a single .

Multigraph:

A combination of more than one letter that represents a single .

Digraph:

Two letters that represent one phoneme; Klingon has ch, gh and ng.

Trigraph:

Three letters that represent one phoneme; Klingon has tlh.

Suprasegmentals: features that extend beyond individual sounds

Syllable:

Smallest sequence of that can stand on its own, often considered the building blocks of words. Note that a division of words into syllables does not apply to all languages, but it’s useful enough for Klingon.

Onset, Anlaut:

First sound(s) of a syllable, necessarily a in Klingon (except for the suffix -oy)

Nucleus, Kern:

Most prominent part of the syllable. Has to be a vowel in Klingon, but can be a consonant in some languages (i. e. Slovak “krv” (meaning blood, the nucleus is “r”) or the second syllable in English “little”; for some speakers, the nucleus is the “l”). Every syllable must consist of at least a nucleus.

Coda, Auslaut:

Last sound(s) of a syllable, usually a (or several) consonant(s). Klingon syllables do not need to have a coda.

Boundary:

Onset or coda or both. Can also be the nucleus, if a syllable lacks either onset or coda.

Rhyme:

Nucleus and coda (if present) taken together

Open (free) vs. closed (checked) syllable:

A syllable without a coda is said to be open, a syllable with a coda is closed. Both are possible in Klingon.

Phonotactics:

A language’s rules how to combine into . Klingon phonotactic rules are:

• - (CV)

• Consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC)

• Consonant-- (CV{w,y})

• Consonant-vowel-rgh (CVrgh)

Consonant cluster:

Two or more consonants pronounced without in-between. Only three consonant clusters are possible in Klingon, namely w, y (though these are debatable) and rgh, and all of these only in the . Note that consonants neighbouring across syllables (f.ex. Eng-lish or tlh Han-Dogh) may not be considered clusters, unless there are rules governing them.

Stress, accent:

General word to denote relative emphasis given to a part of a word or sentence. Stress is in English (compare “minute” and “minute”) and can be phonemic in Klingon where it distinguishes from (compare Dabej and Dabej)

Word stress:

Emphasis on a in a word, usually marked by increased loudness, vowel length, full articulation of a vowel or tone/pitch.

Sentence stress, prosodic stress:

Emphasis on a word or word-part in a .

How to make speech sounds

Vocal tract:

All the bits humans use to make , from the voice box to the mouth and nose

Articulator:

Moveable part of the vocal tract, most importantly lips, tongue and glottis.

Consonants

[sec:Place]

[fig:place]

Bilabial:

Any sound that involves both lips, like Klingon b, m, p and w.

Labio-dental:

Any sound that is formed between the upper teeth and the lower lip, like Klingon v.

Retroflex:

Any sound in which the tongue is bent (“flexed”) back (“retro”), so that its tip () or underside () touches anywhere between the back of the to the . They are common in many Indian languages and are found in the Klingon D and S.

[sec:Types]

Stop/Plosive:

A sound in which the airstream is entirely interrupted. If the airstream resumes, the stop/plosive is said to be “released”. Some linguists distinguish stops and plosives, though there is no agreement on what the distinction is. Klingon stops/plosives are b, D, p, q, t and ’.

Fricative:

A sound in which the airflow is restricted until it becomes turbulent. Klingon fricatives are gh, H and v.

Sibilant fricative:

A sound in which the turbulent airflow is directed through a narrow channel. Generally have a “hissing” quality to them. Klingon only has one sibilant fricative, the S. English has s, z and sh.

Affricate:

A stop/plosive consonant released into a or . Klingon has the affricates tlh and Q.

Sibilant Affricate:

A consonant released into a . Klingon has the sibilant affricates ch and j.

Approximant:

Two articulators are approached, but not enough to make the airflow turbulent. The border to may be fuzzy. Klingon has the approximants l, w and y.

Trill:

A consonant in which any articulator vibrates very fast. Rarely also called “vibrant”. The “rolled r” that is found in Spanish, Russian, Swedish or Klingon is a trill.

Tap:

A consonant in which the tongue lightly taps the roof of the mouth. Also called a flap, though some may distinguish these words. An alveolar tap is commonly used to replace an alveolar trill (“rolled r”) by speakers who cannot pronounce the latter.

Nasal:

The airflow is redirected through the nose. Klingon nasal consonants are m, n and ng. Vowels can also be nasal, see .

[sec:Tongue]

Central:

Any in which the airflow is directed through the centre of the mouth, as in sounds like v, t or H. Contrasts with .

Lateral:

Any in which the airflow is directed along one or both sides of the tongue, but blocked in the middle. Found in Klingon in the letters l and tlh.

Coronal:

Any articulated with the flexible part at the front of the tongue. Contrasts with . Has the subtypes:

• Apical:[apical] Using the tip of the tongue, as in the English “th”

• Laminal:[laminal] Using the blade of the tongue, as in the Klingon/English “ch”

• Subapical:[subapical] Using the underside of the tongue, can be used for consonants, like Klingon D and S (though they can also be apical)

• Domed:[domed] The tongue forms a dome-like shape, with the tip low and the middle high, as in the Klingon/English “ch”

• Grooved:[grooved] The tongue forms a groove, results in sibilants like English “s” or “z”

Dorsal:

Any articulated with the back of the tongue, the dorsum. Found f. ex. in the Klingon consonants gh, H or q.

[sec:OtherArt]

Voice, voiced vs. voiceless:

Whether or not the vocal chords vibrate during sound production. Typical English example is “s” (voiceless) vs. “z” (voiced).

Aspirated:

A consonant is followed by a puff of air, compare English “pin” and “spin”. Important for the Klingon consonants p, q and t, which are always aspirated.

[ConsChart]

By place of articulation:

By tongue features:

Vowels

[sec:VowDesc]

Vowel space:

The space in the that is used to produce . Also the name of an either trapezoidal or triangular diagram used to map vowels.

Openness, open vs. closed vowels:

How far the tongue and lower jaw open the mouth, see image below.

Vowel height, low vs. high vowels:

How far the back of the tongue is lifted, see image below. This is mostly equivalent to openness and the description of open vs. closed is now preferred.

Backness, back vs. front vowels:

How far back or forward the back of the tongue is lifted. See the above picture for front vowel positions; for back vowels, the middle of the tongue is lowered and the dorsum pushed towards the back of the throat, like the vowel [u:] (as in English “loop”).

Roundedness, rounded vs. unrounded vowels:

How much the lips form a rounded shape.

Cardinal vowel:

A vowel in which the tongue is in an extreme position.

Nasal:

A pronounced with a lowered which makes the airstream go out through both the mouth and nose. Vowels are nasal in the Krotmag and Tak’ev dialects of Klingon.

Length:

How long or short a vowel is pronounced, marked in with a colon. Klingon vowels are all short, except for the written Iy. Note that in English, lengthening a vowel generally changes the vowel itself, cf. “slip” [slp] and “sleep” [sli:p], however, Australian English f. ex. contrasts [æ] (as in “lad”) and [æ:] (as in “bad”).

Raised:

When the tongue is raised higher than is typical in a certain vowel.

Retracted:

When the root of the tongue is pulled back towards the throat in a vowel.

Fronted:

When the tongue and lower jaw move forward in vowels.

[sec:VowChart]

Klingon vowel space with and marked. Locations are to be seen as approximate and likely more extreme than what most speakers actually pronounce. Diphthongs are marked by arrows that show the movement from the first to the second vowel. This shows more clearly why Iy is phonetically a (when following its description in TKD) as it does not move in the vowel space. The Okrandian spelling is to the left with notation in square brackets to the right.

Sound processes: How sounds change or interact

Assimilation:

When a changes in contact with another phoneme to make one or both phonemes easier to pronounce. In English, the letter “n” before “b” or “p” is often assimilated into an “m” (pronounce the phrase “ten books” quickly). Klingon does not have assimilation, but particularly beginners may assimilate f. ex. the St in qaStaHvIS to either using an English “sh” in place of the Klingon S or to using a retroflex “T” as well. Both are done in order to avoid the large movement of the tongue between the retroflex and . This is to be avoided.

Rhoticity:

Whether or not the letter “r” is pronounced in . Typically an English concept, where rhotic accents such as Scottish, Irish or General American pronounce the “r” in words like “water” in some way, while non-rhotic accents such as most Southern English or Australian accents instead change and lengthen the final . In this framework, Klingon is always rhotic; the word qar therefore rhymes with Scottish/Irish pronunciation of “car”, but not with the Oxford English pronunciation of that same word.

Gemination, consonant lengthening:

A being articulated for a longer period of time; on Earth common in languages such as Italian, Japanese, Finnish and most Semitic languages. In Klingon, it is used by some speakers when two of the same consonant neighbour one another across a border. A word like qettaH may therefore be pronounced either [’qhth.thx] (no gemination) or [’qht:hx] (gemination). Note that in English a written double consonant typically the preceding rather than geminating the doubled consonant.

Morphology: the study of word formation

Basic units

Morpheme:

The smallest meaningful unit in a language that cannot be further subdivided. May be a word, may not be a word on its own. The English –(e)s is an example of a morpheme that cannot stand alone. For an example, the word “unflappability” is made up of the morphemes “un-” (), “flap” (), “-able” (in this case a ) and “-ity” (always a suffix).

Root, radical:

The core of a word that cannot be further reduced into meaningful units (i. e. morphemes). Root or root word is also used to denote the base of another word that is from the root in some way.

Affix:

Any that cannot stand on its own and is in some way attached to another morpheme

Affigation:

The action of putting an affix on a word

Prefix:

Any that cannot stand on its own and is put in front of another morpheme

Prefigation:

The action of putting a prefix on a word

Suffix:

Any that cannot stand on its own and is put behind another morpheme

Suffigation:

The action of putting a suffix on a word

Word formation:

Morphological typology: Classing languages by their morphology

Agglutination, agglutinative:

Languages that stick (“glue”) morphemes together. Klingon is described as agglutinative due to the way words and sentences are formed by adding prefixes and suffixes to existing words. Terran agglutinative languages are, f. ex., Hungarian, Finnish, Turkish and the majority of North American languages.

Fusion, fusional:

In contrast to languages, fusional languages can use a single to express multiple , or features. For example, the Spanish verb ending “-ábamos” stands for the first person , something an agglutinative language could theoretically need up to five distinct to express (one each for first , plural, past , imperfective and indicative mood). In addition, endings tend to “fuse” to root words, modifying both. In the above example of “unflappability”, the fact that the word is not *unflapableity is an example of fusion. Languages tend to be mostly fusional or agglutinative, but there are exceptions, f. ex. the Siouan languages.

Synthesis, synthetic:

Languages that modify root words through or to denote or relations between them. All of the above are types of synthetic languages. Contrasts with analytic languages (see below).

Polysynthesis, polysynthetic:

Highly synthetic languages, in which many/most words are made up from a high number of morphemes. In the “extreme” version, certain words are built only from non-independent ; f. ex. in the Cherokee language, verb roots require at minimum a (comparable to those in Klingon), an and a modal suffix (describes a mixture of categories) to form a complete verb; a verbal root alone is not an independent word. There is no minimal word-to-morpheme-ratio for a language to be considered polysynthetic, therefore you might hear a language called “mildly polysynthetic”. That also means that it would not necessarily be false to describe Klingon as (mildly) polysynthetic, but it is also not very common.

Analytic:

Languages that use words to denote or relations between words as opposed to or forms. They usually assign syntactic primarily by word order. Contrasts with “synthetic”. No language is purely analytic or synthetic, so even a mostly synthetic language such as Klingon can have analytic constructions and vice versa. In English, the of can be either synthetic (“commoner”) or analytic (“more common”).

Isolating:

The “extreme” version of an analytic language with no or extremely few forms. Whether a true isolating language exists is a topic of contention among linguists, but Mandarin Chinese is usually advanced as the most isolating language on Earth.

Morphological process types: In what ways languages form words

Derivation:

Forming a new word from an existing one by adding . Affixes that are used for this can be referred to as “derivational affixes”. English examples include -ness (f. ex. “slowness”) or en-/em- (f. ex. “enlarge” or “embolden”). In common parlance, any way of forming new words from an existing one may be called derivation, but this use is considered imprecise. Note that morphemes (such as the English -s) are not a case of derivation, as the result is a form of the original word, not a new word.

Inflection:

General term for words changing from their “dictionary form”, depending on their usage in a sentence. The term “inflection” is mostly used with languages, like most Indo-European languages. It is therefore debatable whether Klingon can/should be considered a type of inflection.

Productivity, productive:

The degree to which a grammatical process is used by speakers, especially when introducing new words to the language. For example, newly formed words in English will use the past tense ending “-ed” rather than a past tense formation following the pattern of “sing-sang-sung”; i. e. if one were to invent the verb “to kling” (meaning “to speak Klingon”) the past tense would be “klinged”, never “klang”. In Klingon, the noun-noun construction as well as purpose clause nouns may be considered productive types of word formation. However, as speakers mostly impose this restriction upon themselves, it is an atypical example.

Lexicalisation:

The process of adding words to a language, particularly the process in which a newly-formed word loses the association with its origin and starts to designate only a particular meaning. A Klingon example is the word neb in the sense of “nozzle”. The older meaning is “beak, bill”, so the word should take the -Du for body parts, but because the sense of “nozzle” has become fully lexicalised, it instead takes the general plural suffix -mey. In English, generalised brand names like “hoover” or “xerox” used as verbs are an example, as speakers who use these words may no longer be aware that these words used to be brand names.

Compounding, compound, compound word:

A word made up from more than one . In Klingon, compound or compound noun is used to denote a word that seems to consist of two words written as one, such as jolpa “transporter room”, seemingly composed of jol “transport” and pa “room”. It is not recommended that Klingonists form these words themselves.

Loanword, loan:

A word that is taken from another language, usually with the same or a closely related meaning and adjusted pronunciation. The process of taking a word from another language is called “borrowing”. Names for Terran countries in Klingon are loanwords.

Calque:

Also called “loan translation” in which a word is taken from another language and translated piece-by-piece into the target language. For example, the above “loanword” is a calque from German “Lehnwort” (from “(ent)lehnen” - loan and “Wort” - word). The word “calque”, on the other hand, is a loanword (from French).

Other

Hindsight word:

Community term describing a composite or derived word of any kind whose meaning only becomes clear in hindsight, i. e. after it has been translated. Has occasionally been applied to canon words, such as toy’wI’a which could just as easily be understood to mean “head servant” as opposed to “a more intense kind of servant” (toy’wI – servant+-’a augmentative \(\rightarrow\) toy’wI’a – slave), but is usually used for words coined by a member of the community. A common example was QoQ DoS, lit: “music target”, a term that makes perfect sense for “drum”, only after one knows that “drum” is its intended meaning (and is no longer used, as it has been replaced by canon words).

Fossil word, fossil form:

A word or form of a word that is largely obsolete except for the usage in a particular or phrases. An example would be the English word “ado”, not used outside of expressions like “without further ado” or “much ado about nothing”. In Klingon, we find a fossil in f. ex. SIS yoD (umbrella), in which SIS, normally a verb meaning “to rain”, is the only remaining usage of a formerly existing noun “rain”.

Grammar: the set of rules by which languages are structured

Fundamentals

Agreement:

When a word changes form depending on another word to which it relates. Common in languages like French, where articles and adjectives have to agree with the noun (i. e. le grand homme (male) vs. la grande femme (female)). In Klingon, a verb has to agree with its and through the . This type of agreement is called “polypersonal agreement”.

Argument:

A word or expression that helps complement the meaning of another, typically a .

Dependant:

A word that depends on another to determine its grammatically correct usage in the sentence. In English, the is usually the ’s dependant, as its form depends on the subject (cf. “I do” and “He does”).

Complement:

A type of element necessary to complete the meaning of an expression. Typically used for the and of . In English, a subject is always needed for any verb, so it is a complement.

Government, rection:

Terms used to describe the relation between a word and its dependants. In the traditional usage of the concept, a word is said to “govern” its dependant when it requires a particular grammatical form of it. For example, Latin govern the of their by requiring said object(s) to be in a particular case for the to be grammatically correct.

Modifier:

An optional element that modifies the meaning of another word or expression. Typical modifiers are articles (“the house”), adjectives (“red rover”), adverbs (“run quickly”), but even numbers (“three mice”) or clauses (“the book that I read”) can be modifiers.

Parts of speech

Noun: a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing or living creature

Noun class:

Categories of nouns that share one or several features, typically in meaning or formation, but also sometimes arbitrary. Nouns in the same class usually share some grammatical properties, such following the same patterns, using particular or being replaced by different . Klingon has three noun classes that differ in and possibly in suffix and pronoun used to replace them, namely “beings capable of language”, “body parts” and “general”.

Gender, grammatical gender:

A particular type of noun class common to Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic languages, in which the noun classes mostly overlap with the sex of persons and animals. The sex is in this context also referred to as “natural gender” to contrast with the “grammatical gender” for the few cases in which these do not match. For example, the Scottish Gaelic word “boireannach”, meaning “woman” is grammatically male, because it is formed with the ending “-ach” (which works a bit like Klingon -wI’ if it could only be appended to ), which as a rule only results in grammatically male nouns. For an opposite example, collective nouns (nouns that designate groups of people, animals etc.) in Middle Egyptian are often grammatically female because they use the feminine ending -t, even if the group is made up exclusively of men, such as “Xnyt”, “sailors, oarsmen”. Some linguists might use “gender” as an alternative word for noun class. In this case, the Klingon classes of language-user vs. non-language-user vs. body part may be called a “gender”.

Case:

Form of nouns and noun modifiers that expresses grammatical function of the noun or noun in a sentence. The word “case” is typically used for languages and its application to Klingon is questionable. However, since the names of cases may also be used to speak of other forms or constructions that fulfil the same role as a particular case, the following cases may potentially be considered applicable to Klingon:

Nominative:

The case a is in; unmarked in Klingon except by position in the OVS-

Genitive:

Case expressing possession (“Marc’s book”) or attributive (“a book of paper”) relation of two nouns; expressed in English with “-’s” and in Klingon by the noun-noun construction

Dative:

Typical case, marking the beneficiary or recipient of an action; marked in Klingon by the -vaD

Accusative:

Typical case, marking the target of an action; unmarked in Klingon except by position in the OVS-

Locative:

Case expressing location; usually expressed in Klingon with the -Daq

Ablative:

Case expressing a motion from a place; usually expressed in Klingon with the -vo (or not at all)

Elative:

Case expressing a motion out of a place; usually expressed in Klingon with the -vo (or not at all)

Allative:

Case expressing motion towards a place; usually expressed in Klingon with the -Daq (or not at all)

Illative:

Case expressing motion into a place; usually expressed in Klingon with the -Daq (or not at all)

Number, grammatical number:

A form of the noun that shows how many of the noun there are.

Singular:

Exactly one instance of the noun

Plural:

More than one instance of the noun

Other options:

The above are the only two grammatical numbers of both English and Klingon, but other languages may distinguish dual (exactly two, though duals may evolve to include higher numbers but be referred to as dual for historic reasons), trial (exactly three), paucal (a few), collective (“all of” or a group of, cf. English “people”)...

Collective noun:

Noun that refers to a group of people, beings or things.

Mass noun, uncountable noun:

Any quantity of that noun is treated as an undifferentiated unit; if a plural exists, it usually refers to a slightly more specialised meaning of the word or different types of it (e. g. en “woods” is either a synonym of “forest” or refers to different types of wood). Can also not usually be used with numbers (“one wood” will at most make sense in a game of “Settlers of Catan”)

Singulare tantum, plurale tantum:

The noun exists only in the singular/plural and is treated as such grammatically (e. g. en: “trousers, scissors”).

Collective singular:

Noun that refers to a collection of things or beings, but is grammatically singular, like Klingon inherently plural nouns.

Locative noun, location noun:

Category of Klingon nouns describing an area by its spatial relation to another noun, i.e. “area above”, “area next to” etc.

Verb: a word that expresses an action, occurrence or state of being

Tense:

Where in time the action described by the verb happens. It is very important to remember that Klingon doesn’t have tenses, instead using aspects.

Aspect:

How the action described by the verb extends over time. The typical distinction is of completed vs. not-completed action, but aspects may also denote repeated, habitual or unitary actions. It should be noted that the aspect expresses a point of view, meaning that the use of the aspect is often less governed by clear rules (the way tense is) and more by the speaker’s point of view. The same sentence may be correct in multiple aspects, but emphasise different points of the action.

Perfective:

An aspect that denotes an action as a single, completed occurrence. It is marked in Klingon with the -pu and -ta.

Perfective vs. perfect:

In English grammar, the term “perfect” is used to refer to a verb form combining tense and aspect, which expresses an action that was completed before the present. An action that was completed before any time of reference (which may be in the future - see the English future perfect) is technically in the perfect aspect. However, due to the risk of confusion with the aspect-tense combination, the term “perfective” is mostly used as including the perfect aspect (as is done above).

Imperfective:

The contrasting aspect to the perfective, denoting an action as ongoing, continuous or habitual or not making any claim about the action’s status with regards to completeness. It is generally unmarked in Klingon, though the phrasing in TKD makes it possible that perfective aspect marking is not required in Klingon, meaning that an unmarked verb is potentially neutral with respect to its aspect.

Progressive:

Expresses an ongoing action. Can be seen as a subtype of the imperfective, but contrary to the imperfective, it always makes a statement on the action’s completeness.

Valency:

Property expressing how many arguments a verb/predicate can take:

• avalent or impersonal: No argument, e. g. SIStaH - it need not be specified who or what is raining.

• monovalent or intransitive: One argument, the , e. g. Qong be’¹.

• bivalent or transitive: Two arguments, subject and , e. g. paq¹ laD be². Note that the term “bivalent” has been erroneously used for ditransitive verbs in some Klingon grammar descriptions.

• trivalent or ditransitive: Three arguments, subject, direct object and , e. g. loDvaD¹ paq² nob be³.

Transitivity:

Whether or not a verb can take a direct object. Some verbs may have both a transitive and an intransitive usage, which may differ in meaning. Transitivity of Klingon verbs may not match the transitivity of their English equivalents (as is the case among natural languages as well). As the transitivity of Klingon verbs is also not always known, the usefulness of the concept is contentious.

Voice, grammatical voice:

The voice describes the relationship of the action expressed by the verb with its participants. In English, when the is the or the doer of the verb, the verb is in the active voice. If the subject is the or target of the action, the verb is in the passive voice. Some languages add a middle voice, in which the subject is both agent and patient of the action. This corresponds to constructions in other languages, including Klingon. Klingon does not mark for voice, but the passive is usually circumscribed by the .

Infinitive:

Usually, the most basic form of a verb without any (though this is not true for all languages, f. ex. in Hebrew, some verbs cannot even form an infinitive). With respect to Klingon, the term could denote a verb without any , but it is rarely used that way. The usage of the English to-infinitive (i. e. “I want to do sth”) uses either a or the sentence-as-object construction in Klingon rather than an infinitive construction.

Mood:

A feature of verbs used to signal modality, that is the attitude of the speaker towards what they are saying, f. ex. whether it’s a statement of fact, a wish, a command etc. Klingon could be analysed as having two moods, plus an additional one expressed by an analytic construction and four more that are expressed by . It should be noted that Marc Okrand has not described any of these in terms of grammatical mood (except for the imperative) and most of these terms are not in common usage among Klingonists.

Indicative:

The “default” mood, used for factual statements. Usually unmarked, including in Klingon.

Imperative:

Mood used to give orders and/or requests. Uses a specific set of prefixes in Klingon.

Conditional:

A statement that is dependent on a condition; the “then”-part of an “if-then”-statement. However, that entire construction is also referred to as a “conditional statement/construction”. Has also been applied to the Klingon -chugh, though that would be a different usage of the term.

Subjunctive/Conjunctive:

Words for the mood in which the “if”-part of an “if-then”-statement is in. Could be used to describe the Klingon suffix -chugh, but is rarely used so.

Irrealis/Hypothetical:

Technically, all moods that do not describe factual statements (i. e. all moods except the indicative) are irrealis moods. However, the term “irrealis” when applied to conditions is often used to describe conditions that are hypothetical or counterfactual (e. g. “if I were a rich man” or “if the moon were made of cheese”). The Klingon net jalchugh-construction could be described as irrealis or hypothetical.

Optative:

Expresses hopes and wishes, could be used to describe the Klingon suffix -jaj.

Necessitative/obligative:

Rare mood that expresses necessities and/or obligations, could be used to describe the Klingon suffix -nIS.

Dubitative:

A mood that expresses the speaker’s doubt about their statement. Klingon has dubitative for both nouns (-Hey) and verbs (-law’).

Modal verb:

Verbs that are used to describe modality. English modal verbs include f. ex. “must”, “may”, “can” and “shall” (non-exhaustive list). Klingon has no modal verbs per se, instead mostly expressing modality through suffixes.

Verb of motion:

In Klingon, a category of verbs whose goal can be used as their direct object. First described in TKD as verbs whose “meaning includes locative notion”. These verbs can distinguish “motion at a place” from “motion towards a place”. “Verbs of motion” are a category in many languages, which is why the term is used by some Klingonists, but what distinguishes them can be very different from language to language. Note that not all verbs describing a movement are verbs of motion.

Verb of speech:

In Klingon, the verbs that can be used as the dialogue tag on direct speech (i. e. “Here I am,” he said.) and require a no-object prefix in this usage, namely jatlh, ja, jang and HIt. Note that not all verbs describing speech are verbs of speech. This term has so far not been used by Marc Okrand.

Stative verb, verb of quality, adjective-verb:

Type of necessarily verb that is the closest equivalent to in Klingon. Can be used and in the law-puS-construction. Usually equivalent to English “to be” + adjective, but not necessarily. Note that there is disagreement on whether the term “stative verb” can/should be applied to Klingon.

Action verb, non-stative verb:

The opposite of the above, any verb that cannot be used attributively or in the law-puS-construction.

Leftovers: Every word that is not one of the above

[sec:Pronoun] Word that can replace a or . Klingon additionally has two pronouns that can replace preceding full in the position, namely ’e’ and net.

Person, grammatical person:

The grammatical description of participants in an event. The first person is or includes the speaker, the second person is or includes the addressee and the third person includes everyone else. The order is hierarchical, i. e. any group that includes the speaker(s) is necessarily in the grammatical first person, independent of who else is included and a third person can only be used if neither the speaker(s) nor the addressee(s) are included in the group being spoken about. Grammatical persons usually influence the use of pronouns and affect forms. In Klingon, pronouns, verbal and are influenced by grammatical person.

Antecedent:

With respect to pronouns, the antecedent is the noun that is being replaced by a pronoun in subsequent mentions. There is also another use of the term, see .

Pro-drop:

Short for pronoun-drop, said of languages in which certain classes of pronouns can be omitted. Pro-drop languages are usually either highly inflected so the pronoun is inferable from the forms of other words (this is f. ex. the case in Spanish, where the subject is inferable from the form of the ) or completely lack any inflection based on grammatical person, so the dropped pronouns must be inferred from context (this is f. ex. the case in Japanese). Languages may be only partially pro-drop when the pronouns can only be dropped in certain circumstances (f. ex. in Modern Hebrew where the past and future tenses are marked for grammatical person, so the pronoun can be dropped, but the present tense is not, meaning that the pronoun has to be included there). Klingon is a “full” or “consistent” pro-drop language, meaning that (and in Klingon’s case also ) pronouns are never required.

[sec:Adverb] A word that modifies a or sentence. Note that in colloquial English the terms “adverb” and “” are often used synonymously. Technically, “adverb” denotes the part of speech, while “adverbial” denotes the or function the adverb plays in the sentence. This is important as and non-adverb parts of speech can function as adverbials (then also called “adverbial phrases” or “adverbial clauses”), but that does not make them adverbs. However, since TKD almost exclusively refers to this part of speech as adverbials, the applicability of this distinction to the Klingon language is a topic of contention among Klingonists.

Basic adverb:

An adverb that is not derived from another word, such as “almost”, “here” or “often”. Really the only type of adverb in Klingon.

Derived adverb:

An adverb that derives from a different word, very often an adjective. In English, these are almost all recognisable through their ending in “-ly”; Klingon cannot derive adverbs from adjectives.

[sec:Conjunction] A word that links words or sentences. Klingon only has seven conjunctions.

Coordinating conjunction:

A conjunction that links words or of equal syntactic importance. These are the only type of conjunction in Klingon, which has four types of them: “and”, “and/or”, “exclusive or” and “but”.

Subordinating conjunction:

A conjunction that links to their main clauses. Klingon does not have subordinating conjunctions, their role is instead filled by .

Noun conjunction:

A conjunction that links two or more nouns. Term typical for Klingon grammar, to distinguish from sentence conjunctions.

Sentence conjunction:

A conjunction that links two or more sentences. Term typical for Klingon grammar, to distinguish from noun conjunctions. Most languages do not need such a distinction as they use the same conjunctions for both.

[sec:Number] Words for numbers.

Cardinal number:

The base numerals, the “normal” numbers one, two, three etc.

Ordinal number:

Numerals used to express the sequence or order of things, i. e. first, second, third etc. Marked in Klingon with the suffix -DIch.

Multiplicative number:

Not overly common term for numbers used to express the frequency of an occurrence, i. e. once, twice, thrice etc. Marked in Klingon with the suffix -logh.

Number-forming element, number-forming suffix:

Term for the used to form the number words of higher powers of ten, i. e. -maH, -vatlh, -SaD/SanID etc. One usage of SaD law’ in the paq’batlh suggests that they are not exclusively suffixes, but can in some circumstances stand alone.

[sec:Question] A word that marks a question. Klingon interrogative words serve to mark open questions (also called wh-questions in English), the yes/no-question (or closed question) is marked with the interrogative -’a’.

[sec:Interjection] A word or expression that can stand as an utterance on its own. The general “rules” of do not apply to interjections. Interjections include exclamations (such as “wow”), greetings, response words (such as “okay”, but also “yes” and “no”), hesitation markers (“uhm”), filler words (“well”, “like”), sound words (“ouch” or “achoo”) and many forms of profanity.

Parts of speech that don’t exist in Klingon

Preposition:

Not a word type in Klingon, but very common in English. They usually denote spatial or temporal relations or bind to (“at home”, “in three days”, “go to jail”). Usually expressed in Klingon through or , if at all.

Article:

A that marks the identifiability of a noun or . The English articles “the” and “a/an” mark a noun for grammatical definiteness, but other languages have articles that additionally convey information about grammatical , (particularly ) or . Klingon does not have articles.

Adjective:

Used to describe nouns. Klingon does not have adjectives, instead using a group of necessarily verbs called “stative verbs”, “verbs of quality” or “adjective-verbs”. In addition to fulfilling the role of , these verbs can be used in the law-puS-construction and can stand behind a noun to describe it (i.e. “red table” – raS Doq).

Attributive:

An attributive adjective is used directly with a noun to further describe it, i.e. “a red table”. Stative verbs used this way in Klingon are often termed “adjectives” or “verbs used adjectivally”, but the linguistic term is “attributive”.

Predicative:

An adjective that is used as part of a ’s , requires the verb “to be” in English, i.e. “The table is red”.

Comparative:

Form of an adjective that denotes that A has more of the quality expressed by the adjective than B. Expressed in Klingon with the law-puS-construction.

Superlative:

Form of an adjective that denotes that A has the most of the quality expressed by the adjective. Expressed in Klingon with the law-puS-construction.

Additional terms possibly used to describe Klingon affixes

Noun suffixes

Augmentative:

Form that augments the noun, usually forming a bigger, more important or more intense version of the original noun. Klingon examples:

• bIQ’a: sea, ocean – water of a larger size

• ’uQ’a: banquet – a more important dinner

• toy’wI’a: slave – more “intense” type of servitude

Diminutive:

Form that diminishes the noun, usually forming a smaller, less important or incomplete version of the original noun. Klingon examples:

• chabHom: cookie – small cake

• mangHom: cadet – not yet a soldier

• DujHom: shuttle – more limited than a ship

Possessive:

, word or form that express the possession of one by another. Klingon uses a set of possessive appended to the noun, -wI/wIj, -lI’/lIj etc.

Demonstrative:

Words and used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish them from other entities. Demonstratives are a form of . The most common examples are “this” and “that”, expressed in Klingon with the -vam and -vetlh.

Deixis:

The use of words or phrases to refer to a time, place, thing or person relative to some reference point. The best known deictic words are likely demonstratives like “this” and “that” (-vam and -vetlh in Klingon), but and certain and time words are also part of deixis. The use of pronouns is always in reference to the speaker (the person who is referred to by “I” depends on who’s speaking). Location and time words are part of deixis when they describe a location or time with respect to a reference, i. e. “across the street” is clearly a deictic , while “on the street” is not or less deictic. Deixis is commonly divided into “proximal” (near to the reference, “this”, -vam) and “distal” (away from the reference, that, -vetlh), but some languages add additional levels, f. ex. in Japanese, “proximal” is near the speaker, “medial” near the listener and “distal” far away from both; Malagasy even has seven levels.

Causal:

, word or form that express the cause/reason of an action. Marked in Klingon on both and with the -mo.

Benefactive:

, word or form that expresses the benefactor of an action, often corresponding to English “for”. There is some overlap with the , both in the definition and in the Klingon language. Marked in Klingon with the -vaD.

Topic:

Also called the theme, this is, simply said, the grammatical element that a is about. It usually contrasts with the focus or comment, which is what the sentence has to say about the topic. There is some debate over the exact meaning of the Klingon “topic” marker, as it rather marks the focus in some of its canon usages, which Marc Okrand himself has stated.

Verb suffixes

Reflexive, reflexivity:

, word or form expressing that a subject does an action to itself, e. g. “I wash myself”. In some languages, such as Klingon, this precludes the use of another . Marked in Klingon with the reflexive -’egh.

Reciprocal, reciprocity:

, word or form expressing that two or more subjects do an action to each other, e. g. “we see one another”. Marked in Klingon with the reciprocal -chuq. Reflexive and reciprocal share the condition that the subject and object of the sentence are the same.

Iterative:

, word or form expressing that an action is repeated. One aspect of the Klingon -qa.

Inceptive:

, word or form expressing that an action begins. Has been used to refer to the Klingon -choH, though this has been described in TKD as a change of state, meaning that the term “inceptive” may be debatable.

Causative:

Verb form expressing that one noun causes either itself or another noun to do something, suffix –moH in Klingon. Proto-Germanic had a causative and words like English “blacken” (make black), “raise” (cause to rise), “lie” (cause to lay) or “fell” (cause to fall) still show remnants of the way it was once formed. Modern English, unless it has a separate verb with the causative meaning, usually has to express the causative with “cause”, “make” or similar constructions. Klingon has the causative -moH.

Indefinite subject:

When the of a is not known, not identified or not defined. The closest English equivalent is the pronoun “one”, though the Klingon indefinite subject can also often be translated with the passive . Other types of words can also be indefinite, f. ex. the pronouns vay (someone, something) or pagh (nothing, nobody) would also be called indefinite.

Honorific:

Term to refer to language features that express the speaker’s respect for the addressee or even a third person. The Klingon can be called a honorific suffix.

Substantivisation, substantiviser, nominalisation, nominaliser:

Substantivisation/Nominalisation is the process of forming a from another type of speech, most commonly a (f. ex. react \(\rightarrow\) reaction) or (f. ex. red \(\rightarrow\) redness). General nominalisations in Klingon can be formed with the substantiviser/nominaliser -ghach, as long as there is at least on other suffix in-between.

Agent noun:

A that denotes the of an action, the person or thing who does an action denoted by a . Commonly formed in English with the “-er” (i. e. “read \(\rightarrow\) reader” or “print \(\rightarrow\) printer”). Formed in Klingon with the suffix -wI’.

Final:

Grammatical form that expresses a purpose or result. It is expressed in Klingon with the verb -meH.

Instrumental vs. Final:

The instrumental is a grammatical case whose main function is to express the tool or means by which an action is performed. It’s sometimes applied to the Klingon suffix -meH, even though a construction with -meH is only used to express the action that results from the tool usage. Compare:
Slovak instrumental:
Ja píšem perom (I write with a pen - perom “with a pen” is in the instrumental case, marking the tool)
Klingon final:
jIghItlhmeH, ghItlhwI’ vIlo’ (In order to write, I use a pen - meH marks the result of the tool usage)

Temporal:

, words or forms that are related to time. Klingon -DI’, -vIS and -pa’ are all temporal .

Relativisation, relative clause:

A relative clause describes a noun in more detail, turning a into a . It is formed in Klingon with the verb suffix -bogh. The noun that the relative clause describes is called its “head”, “head noun” (this is the term TKD uses) or “antecedent”.

Syntax: the study on how words are combined to form sentences

Basic Syntactic Organisation

Word order:

Correct order of elements in a sentence. Languages may have a fixed word order (like Klingon’s --), partially fixed word order, free word order, but with one order being preferred (the preferred order is called “neutral word order”, as other constructions, while possible, usually imply emphasis or mark certain types of clauses) or fully free word order. Basic word order is usually expressed through the elements subject, verb and object, but additional elements may be subjected to rules as well.

Role, syntactic role:

The role or place a word or takes in a . can generally take the role of and , but, at least in English or Klingon, not of . Occasionally, the syntactic (sentence structure based) role and the (meaning-based) role can contrast (see and below for an example).

Verb-centric:

Community term to express that Klingon has a tendency to use verbs where English is more likely to use nouns, resulting in very different structures of translated sentences.

Sentence structure

Structural units

Phrase:

A phrase, also called an expression in some contexts, is a group of words acting as a single grammatical unit. In the English sentence “I have been reading the new book I got for my birthday”, “have been reading” acts as a single in role of the and is therefore a verb phrase (or verbal phrase); “the new book I got for my birthday” acts as a single in the role of the and is therefore a noun phrase (or nominal phrase). Note that a phrase is named after the part of speech it acts as (i. e. a noun phrase acts like a noun), not the part(s) of speech it consists of.

Clause:

A clause is a sentence or part of a sentence that consists of at least a . Clauses may be full sentences that can stand on their own, but do not have to be.

Independent clause:

A clause that can stand on its own and needs no additional parts to be considered a full sentence.

Dependant clause, subordinate clause:

A clause that cannot stand on its own and needs to be linked to an independent clause to form a full sentence. Klingon subordinate clauses are formed with .

Sentence:

A full or complete sentence consists of one or more independent clauses plus any number (including zero) of dependant clauses. , it is a string of words that expresses a complete thought; it has to consist of at least a .

Simple sentence:

A sentence that is made up of only one independent clause.

Compound sentence:

A sentence that is made up of several independent clauses, linked with punctuation or .

Complex sentence.

A sentence that is made up of at least one independent and at least one dependent clause.

Basic constituents

Subject:

The subject is the part of the clause that the . It commonly expresses the performer of the action expressed by the , but not necessarily. It is one of the three main components of a .

Null-subject language:

A language that allows a sentence to be complete without an explicitly stated subject. English is not a null-subject language, Klingon is.

Agent:

The agent could be called the semantic equivalent of the subject, i. e. the person, being or thing that actually performs the action expressed by the . In the sentence “The door opens”, “the door” is the subject (syntactic role), but not the agent (semantic role), as it is through the action of a person, animal, electric motor or the wind that the door opens, not by its own means. This sentence as is has no agent.

Object:

An object is one of several types of of the which expresses the person, being or thing that the action expressed by the verb is in some way performed on. Without specification, “the” object is usually the (or the object in languages). It is one of the three main components of a .

Patient:

The patient could be called the semantic equivalent of the object, i. e. the person, being or thing the action expressed by the is performed on. In the sentence “The door was opened by the man.”, “the door” is the subject and “the man” is a type of object, but as the man actually performs the action, he is the agent, while the door is the patient.

Direct object:

The direct object is the major of the which expresses the person, being or thing that the action expressed by the verb is performed on. It is called the “direct” object, as it generally stands directly next to the verb in the sentence, while other objects are separate from the verb by some other . Corresponds to the object in languages.

Indirect object:

The indirect object expresses the benefactor (in the grammatical sense - a person being screamed at is still a grammatical “benefactor”) of the action expressed by the . It is called the “indirect” object, as it is usually separated from the verb by the direct object (if present) and some kind of ; usually a in Indo-European languages, or the -vaD in Klingon. Corresponds to the object in languages.

Predicate:

Central part of a sentence and the minimal requirement for a full sentence. It is one of the three main components of a . As English predicates are necessarily (one or several - in the sentence “I would have been trying to do it”, the predicate is “would have been trying to do”), the term is less commonly used in descriptions of English grammar (which just uses “verb”). However, in other languages, parts of speech other than verbs can form predicates (underlined):

2

• predicate:

  (Reads: w̄arrior -̄ K̄lingon Воин - клингон.
  (Read: Voin - klingon)
  warrior Klingon
  The warrior is a Klingon.

• predicate:

  (Reads: K̄lingons k̄hrabr клингон храбр.
  (Read: Klingon khrabr)
  Klingon brave
  A/The Klingon is brave.

• predicate:

  (Reads: c̄rown-1sg.poss t̄o/for-3sg wrrt.j n.s
  crown-1sg.poss to/for-3sg
  My crown to/for her
  My crown shall be hers.

• predicate:

  (Reads: (̄a) Klingon h̄e (is) def-warrior *
  (Read: Halokhem hu klingon)
  (a) Klingon he def-warrior*
  The warrior, he (is) a Klingon
  The warrior is a Klingon.

  *Read right-to-left

• predicate:

  (Reads: ap* m̄(w)t īn s̄ight-1sg.poss t̄oday jw m(w)t m hr.j mjn
  ap* death in sight-1sg.poss today
  Death is in my sight today.

  *Adverbial particle

Klingon constructions such as tlhIngan jIH or tlhIngan ghaH loD’e’ could be described as having predicates, but note that Marc Okrand has not done so.

Adverbial:

The syntactic role adverbs play in a clause when they further describe the clause or the verb. However, of other can also function as adverbials. Some typical adverbials are statements of time (“this morning”, “in three years”), location (“at home”, “under the sea”), purpose (“to this end”), cause (“because of the weather”) etc. It is common in colloquial English to use adverbial and as synonyms. The word “adverbial” is used in TKD to describe what would usually be termed “adverbs”. It is therefore a topic of contention among Klingonists whether locations (raS bIngDaq), time stamps (vagh ben) and similar sentence-describing phrases could or should be termed “adverbials”.

Semantics: the study of meaning

Meaning representation

Gloss:

The most detailed way of describing a word. May be a definition, is often non- and is often not how you would translate the word in context. Rather than individual words, “gloss” is more commonly used for “interlinear glosses” (also called “glossing translations”) that give the extreme literal word-by-word translation of a text, f.ex.:
’e’nalwIj vIlegh
person.who.married.into.the.family-1sg.poss 1sg.a-3sg.p-see
I see my in-law.

Definition:

What you will typically find in a dictionary.

Translation:

For individual words, the closest word in language A to translate a word in language B in a given context. May be the same as the definition when a word does not have multiple possible translations.

• bIQ - water: Both definition and translation.

• maqlegh: Definition: priest, priestess; translation depends on whether the maqlegh is identified as male or female.

Expression, phraseme

Phrase of several words that includes at least one element that is not freely chosen, but according to a convention. Typically includes metaphor or other non-literal use of words.

Fixed expression, set phrase:

Technically a synonym of phraseme, but also used to describe an expression that must be repeated word-for-word without any changes.

Figure of speech, rhetorical figure:

Word or phrase that intentionally uses non-literal meaning to produce an effect of some kind.

Simile:

Type of figure of speech that compares two things, usually in the form of “as (quality) as (noun)”, using a quality that the noun is well-known for. These may be literal, f. ex. “cho fliuch ri sgarbh” (Scottish-Gaelic, “as wet as a cormorant”, as cormorants do not have waterproof feathers despite being waterbirds), metaphorical, f. ex. “as cunning as a fox” (because cunning is a quality traditionally ascribed to foxes) or even ironic, f. ex. “nong, vulqangan rur” (as passionate as a Vulcan) and occasionally non-sensical, f.ex. “as happy as a clam” (usually the result of a shortened longer phrase, misunderstanding, mistranslation etc.)

Sayings: An expression showing wisdom, culture, or standards; generally in some non-literal way

Aphorism:

General observational truth expressed in a memorable and concise or even laconic fashion. They are usually repeated in always exactly the same form. Example: “You cannot step into the same river twice.” (Heraclitus)

Proverb, adage:

Simple, usually traditional and widely-known aphorisms, often (but not always) by unknown authors. Example: “All that glitters is not gold.”

Idiom:

Expression that carries a metaphorical or other non-literal meaning which is usually different from the literal meaning of every word in the idiom.

Idiomatic:

1) Adjective to “idiom”; using idioms
2) Following the natural, conventional way of speaking a language, even when other, grammatically correct alternatives exist. Most often needed to express that a or is non-idiomatic, meaning that it is grammatically correct, but using an unnatural (“weird”) way to express its content. There is, f. ex. nothing grammatically wrong with saying “I did a mistake”, but the idiomatic way to say it is “I made a mistake”.

Ritual phrase:

Set phrases that may or have to be said as part of some form of ritual. This includes the common meaning of “ritual” and then refers to phrases expected f. ex. during a ceremony (“DaHjaj SuvwI’e jIH”), but even greetings in Earth-languages are a kind of ritual and therefore even words such as “Hello” or “How do you do?” are types of ritual (or ritualistic) phrases.

Toast:

What is said during the ritual of toasting. May be freely chosen in the moment (where it might veer into a speech) or follow a set structure or even phrase. Klingon toasts are a number of set phrases that speakers choose from and, as far as we currently know, a toaster may not compose their own toast, but must use one of the set phrases.

Language varieties

Dialect:

Technically, any variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. However, the most common use is for a geographical variety of a language.

Dialect continuum:

When the regional varieties of a language form a continuum of small, incremental changes where neighbouring varieties are always fully mutually intelligible, but intelligibility reduces with distance. Western Romance (Portuguese to Southern Italian) used to form a dialect continuum, as did German-Dutch and the Iroquoian languages of the original Five Nations. The main reason why the question “language or dialect” is so hard to answer.

Dialect levelling:

The process of reduction of the variety in one or several dialects, usually through contact with one or more other dialects, most commonly a standard language.

Regiolect:

More technical term for a regional variety of a language. May be employed in languages with strong dialectal variation to differentiate the “full” dialect from a regionally-coloured form of the standard language. This could f. ex. be used for Scots (dialect, if not even considered a separate language) vs. Standard Scottish English (regiolect), but doesn’t otherwise really apply to English.

Sociolect:

A language variety spoken by a social group, most commonly based on class or age. Things like youth speak, thieves’ cant, or internet jargon are all forms of sociolect.

Slang:

General word for informal vocabulary; the English term refers to the entire spectrum from informal words that are however common in everyday conversation to words considered vulgar, bordering on the taboo. Also includes in-group speech.

Cant, argot:

Mostly vocabulary-based language variety used by a group with the express aim of excluding outsiders. Most common in forms of thieves’ cant.

Jargon, argot:

Specialised vocabulary from a particular field, occupation, hobby etc. Jargon need not be informal. Note: The distinctions between cant, argot and jargon are not rigidly adhered to.

Register:

Variety of language used for a particular purpose or situation. “Low registers” refers to informal, “high” to formal registers.

Ethnolect:

Language variety spoken by an ethnic group, f. ex. AAVE in English. May overlap with sociolect if the ethnicity is associated with a particular class.

Multiethnolect:

Ethnolect used by several different ethnic groups, typically minorities. Usually found in large metropolitan areas.

Idiolect:

Every individual’s unique use of language.

Code-switching:

A speaker’s ability to switch between dialects (in the larger sense) and/or registers.

Accent:

Way of pronouncing a language by an individual. Most commonly used for either regional or foreign accent, but even the standard pronunciation of a language is an accent (the standard accent).

Links

I gave a talk that turned into three at the last qep’a, so if you prefer that, have a look at the videos:

• Part 1: Phonology

• Part 2: Morphology and Grammar

• Part 3: Grammar, Syntax, Semantics and Language varieties