a terrible dad taught his son only klingon

plus: more fictional languages ONE CRACKED FACT | [View in Browser]( [0502022-header](www.cracked.com/article_32770_nasa-sent-a-lightsaber-into-space.html?newsletter-cat=science?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=article&utm_campaign=06052022) [A Terrible Dad Taught His Son Only Klingon]( By: [RM Avatar] [Ryan Menezes]( • May 6, 2022 [05062022]( We asked readers to pick between Star Trek and Star Wars. Everyone stated their opinions civilly instead of attacking each other, and a great many people simply answered "Why not both?" The only testy exchange came when one reader said "star trek is way to [sic] nerdy," leading to an argument over grammar and finally this line from Ray J.: "What's the purpose of a shared language? Except Klingon, that's just to ensure eternal virginity." Klingon has some potential uses, however. This fictional language might teach us about how language works in general. So thought d'Armond Speers, who in 1996 was pursuing a doctorate in linguistics from Georgetown University. Speers had a toddler son, who was ready to learn to speak, like most kids his age. Speers decided to speak to his son Alec only in Klingon. His wife, meanwhile, spoke to Alec only in English, either because this was one of the experiment's parameters or because she wanted no part in this nonsense. The boy would grow up bilingual in English and Klingon, supposed Speers, just like all children who hear two languages growing up. If so, this would prove the made-up languages are just as legitimate as real ones (all languages are made up, after all). What actually happened was that the boy gravitated away from Klingon and spoke only English by the time he was three, no matter what kind of guttural grunts Speers sent his way. Whether or not "made-up" languages are as legitimate as "real" ones, Klingon is not as legitimate as English. It has only around 2,000 words, which was enough for every line of Klingon dialogue in Star Trek but much fewer than any naturally evolved language. English, meanwhile, is an especially wordy language, with some 350,000 words, and that's leaving out all the weird ones. Star Trek fans have since expanded Klingon just a little, but at the time of the experiment, Klingon had no word for (for example) "bottle," "diaper," or "table." if you have to turn to one language every time you have to refer to most things, the other language doesn’t stand a chance. For more language weirdness, check out: - [When Hollywood Needs A Made-Up Language, They Come To Us]( - [5 Complex Languages Invented by One (Crazy) Person]( - [There's a Hidden Language in Futurama]( Top image: Paramount [Daily Digest]( [A Terrible Dad Taught His Son Only Klingon]( [By Ryan Menezes Published: May 06th, 2022]( [The Time 'Star Trek' Made A 9/11 Truther Movie]( [By Maxwell Yezpitelok Published: May 06th, 2022]( [30 Rock: 15 Tracy Jordan Lines For The Ages]( [By JD Roberson Published: May 05th, 2022]( [The Mongols' Secret Weapon: Alcoholic Horse Milk]( [By Eli Yudin Published: May 05th, 2022]( [Why Late Night Is Over (And Is Never Going Away)]( [By Matt Solomon Published: May 05th, 2022]( [READ MORE]( [fb]( [tw]( [yt]( [Logomark_DIGITAL_Red_50X50-px] [insta png]( [tiktok png]( [ARTICLES]( | [PICTOFACTS]( | [Videos]( Literally media Ltd. 190 West St, Suite 17B, Brooklyn NY 11222 COPYRIGHT © 2005-2021 Cracked is published by Literally media Ltd. [Unsubscribe](