You know you are a Star Trek fan when: 1) You wear your own uniform.
2) You make your own Jumja Sticks.
3) You learn to speak Klingon.
The first two are pretty easy: All it takes is some courage and a butter/sugar combination.
The third point is a little more tricky. Klingon (or Klingonese) is an actual language developed by some cunning language experts at various American Universities combined with the content of the first six Star Trek movies and early TNG episodes.
The next logical thing to do with the Klingon language was to make it available for Star Trek fans and so Mark Ocrand (who is now seen to be one of the founding fathers of the Klingon language) put together a Klingon Dictionary and published it with Pocket Books.
The book itself is quite old now and has sections dedicated to 'common phrases' and an actual dictionary section. The main body of the book however, actually teaches you how to pronounce tricky Klingon words and deals with things like Verbs, Nouns and even numbers.
The Dictionary is amazingly well put together. It is to all intents are purposes, the foundation to an actual, real life language.
Language is important. It is one of the aspects that makes a culture unique and the Klingon language is a wonderful example of how Star Trek can build its worlds effectively. (It's just a shame that they don't stick to it properly.)
The Klingon language used to be a very important part of Star Trek fan culture and the Klingon Dictionary used to sell by the ton. However, these days not many fans are bold enough to go all the way and learn the Klingon language. So if you are a Star Trek fan, why not go all the way and buy the Klingon Dictionary and learn the language of one of the most diverse alien cultures of the Star Trek Galaxy? Failing that, learn the basics: It makes a great talking point at parties!
So if you are into Star Trek, you really should buy this book. Even if you have no intent on learning the language, it is an important part of Trek fandom and should be sitting up there with the Star Trek Encyclopedia and the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition.
An audio version is available and read by Michael Dorn as well as a Klingon version of 'Hamlet' by the Klingon Language Institute.
