If you go to google and click on "language tools" there is a list of google translations you can look at, including Bork, Esperanto, Klingon, and Elmer Fudd.

Cases like these could really push Unicode and type design to their respective limits.

I think Klingon fans have already pushed Unicode a few inches closer to the limit of the ridiculous:

http://std.dkuug.dk/jtc1/sc2/wg2/docs/n1643/n1643.htm

I wonder what his target readership is.

People who design fonts for non-existant languages ?

Matha

Isn't it funny to know that Klingon is the most studied language in the world now? Take that Star Wars! heh

but I suppose we'd have to define what we mean by 'studied', wouldn't we.

I think people have too much spare time on their hands. The end is nigh.

M.

But what would those people spending there spare time studying Klingon think of a community of people who spend there spare time developing fonts.

I know the looks I get from other designers when I talk about flying half way round the world for Typecon2004.

Jim

But what would those people spending there spare time studying Klingon think of a community of people who spend there spare time developing fonts.

and what if the two communities accidentally came into contact? Would it be love at first sight, an exchange of prisoners or phasers set to stun?

Matha.

I think it would probably be like matter and anti matter...

There would be nothing left but poorly made fore head prosthesises and fontlab discs for severl miles...

The Unicode Klingon proposal was rejected, mainly because the supposed user community -- all those people studying the language -- use a Latin transliteration instead of the script. Wimps.

The Tolkien scripts probably will be encoded though (in one of the supplementary planes), not least because Tengwar is a serious challenge and solving the problems will be a useful exercise.

Okay, see, if they're going to reject Klingon, they should reject Tolkien stuff as well.

Especially considering Klingon is used by more people than Tolkien scripts, transliteration or not.

What klingon really needs is a system that can be written easily with a pen, not huge shapes. What are you supposed to outline them and then fill them in?

Chris, Tolkien was a linguist, that Hollywood produced wasn't.

> .... then fill them in?

With human blood, of course.

BTW:
http://www.theonion.com/onion3526/klingon_navajo.html

hhp

Chris,

>What klingon really needs is a system that can be written easily with a pen, not huge shapes. What are you supposed to outline them and then fill them in?

Think outside the box.

Why would a Klingon revert to a written language that evolved on earth.
I am sure they must have a different method of forming shapes........thought transference or ??

gln

Okay, see, if they're going to reject Klingon, they should reject Tolkien stuff as well.

The difference is that no one from the Klingon user community approached Unicode with a request, whereas Tolkien enthusiasts have (in fact, one of of them is Irish national representative to ISO 10646). In fact, when Unicode approach Klingon -- ahem -- 'scholars', they were told that there was no interest in having the script encoded.

Anyway, Tengwar is actually very interesting as a complex writing system (it's like an Indic script on drugs). Klingon is not at all interesting.

Hrant, Mark Okrand, a linguist, invented the modern Klingon language.

And Klingon may not be interesting to you, but it's interesting to some people. Otherwise the bible wouldn't've been translated into it...anyone done that with the Tolkien languages?

:shrug: I honestly could care less either way, though.

the bible wouldn't've been translated into it...

Now I'm scared.

m

Chris, I'm talking about the scripts, not the languages. The Klingon script is not very interesting, in the same way that the Latin script is not very interesting, i.e. structurally. It's just a bunch of independent signs in a row. Structurally interesting scripts are things like Devanagari and the other Brahmi-derived scripts of India and Southeast Asia, and Arabic, and old Byzantine Greek cursive in which signs interract contextually, change form, move around, etc. Tengwar is of interest to script encoding engineers because it poses challenges and pushes the boundaries of technology. Developing an encoding for Klingon, on the other hand, would take about five minutes and wouldn't pose any challenge at all.

Oh, okay, I get you now.

Sorry, I can be quite dense sometimes...notice how everytime I come here all the light just starts circling around me.

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