A Man Once Tried to Raise His Son as a Native Speaker in Klingon

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The man is computational linguist Dr. d’Armond Speers. Speers is actually not a huge Start Trek fan himself. Indeed many Klingon language enthusiasts aren’t, contrary to popular belief. They tend to be language lovers fascinated by constructed languages, of which Klingon is a relatively thriving one, hence why they gravitate towards it. Speers became fascinated with the Klingon language after reading a flyer on a bulletin board at Georgetown where Speers was studying linguistics. The flyer was advertising the Klingon Language Institute (KLI), founded by Dr. Larence M. Schoen. “I thought to myself, ‘A new language.’ The fact that it was a constructed language really appealed to me. It sounded like fun,” said Speers.

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[TodayIFoundOut]

For more parental-themed fun check out this video that answers the question Why Do We Call Parents “Mom” and “Dad”?:

[speersd]

Kudos for a very accurate and honest portrayal of our experience! Alec is 22 now and a senior in college and is doing great (though still not speaking Klingon).

[moofymoo]

too bad it failed.
that kid - native klingon speaker, could become a king of all nerds and make milions on youtube.

[xelgringoloco]

There are native Esperanto speakers so we know that kids can be raised speaking a constructed language.

[TheCyberwoman]

That doesn't surprise me any. My grandmother spoke nothing but Spanish to me as a child (she's from Barcelona) and my mother used a lot of Spanish. I know there was a time when I was basically fluent. But when I went to school, where no one spoke Spanish, I forgot it all. Well almost all...I can still understand my grandmother, she tends to speak a mixture of Spanish and English to me, and several words of her own imagining (many English phrases like "take it easy" she hears as things like "tagreesy") I respond in English, but I know what she's saying however she says it. I call it being fluent in grandmama. But whenever I hear other Spanish speakers I can't understand them at all. I think my ear is tuned exclusively to her tone, cadance, accent and Spanish phrases she uses often. I wish I still spoke Spanish, it wasn't a priority when I was young and didn't need it in school, but now I wish I had it.

[Competitive_Antagonist]

I once tried to raise my child on newspeak. That was very ungood.

[SyphistPrime]

The people that complained about this didn't realize that a child being raised under 2 different languages tend to end up being smarter.

[Tarik]

We all know the next step: we could have multiple kids being taught that at the same time and have them partake the same classes and daycare.

I wonder what slang they'd invent during their teens...

[niklausfletcher]

Lol i said "make it dark" so he poked my eyes out.

[mehnot]

People who are not familiar with linguistics might be concerned about the possible harm the experiment could do to the child, but it's actually really innocuous as long as the baby is in contact with other (more useful) languages in his environment, so please don't be alarmed. Furthermore, it's a fact that being raised as bilingual has a good amount of benefits beyond well, obviously being able to speak a second language, not so useful in the case of Klingon. Do some research and it will surprise you, I promise.

I'm almost one hundred % sure that the reason why the child stopped listening to Klingon is just because it was only the father who spoke it. You might think that you've learnt your native language from your parents, but that's actually not the case. You've learnt it from your environment. That's why for example you find children of immigrants who don't have the accent of their parents.
There shouldn't be anything inherently difficult in Klingon to make the child stop speaking it, and I'm pretty sure that if the whole family, the TV and even the school spoke Klingon to him, he would've ended up picking it up perfectly, such as those native Esperanto speakers people mentioned in some comments.
I think the real experiment begins there and involves looking at the changes native speakers of the conlang unconciously do to the language. That's the way to notice which features belong to natural languages and which not. Are there any restrictions, or pretty much every feature you could think of is available to exist in a natural language? That's the real question.

[finleycastello]

Im just gonna raise my kids in swedish, Because i live in sweden, and I'm swedish...

[taqu]

Interesting. Being bilingual, regardless of the languages used, is indeed beneficial to children and adults alike. It's unfortunate that it's more difficult to learn new languages as an adult, but you just have to immerse yourself in the language, or as we say in Finnish, take a "kielikylpy" (literally "language bath").

[rareroe]

20 - 30 people fluent? That's a pretty exclusive club.

[TheOnlyAdamal]

I grew up in a Spanish speaking household, and I remember being able to speak some pretty decent Spanish. But English was just such an easier and more convenient language to use. I'm 21 now and I've nearly forgotten how to speak Spanish. I can still read just fine. But I'm disappointed my speaking abilities aren't so great anymore.

[IronFilmVR]

The problem is he never showed him Star Trek!!

[cagedtigersteve]

I'm going to raise my son speaking only in C++.

[unifieddynasty]

"Make it dark."

That's so metal.

[TheSwiftFalcon]

If he has more kids, perhaps he can raise them as native speakers of Wokiee.

[Chloe-imrc]

I wish I was raised bilingual.. I'm learning my second language now, but I know it would be a lot easier to understand if I heard it as a baby.

[PsychoIncarnate]

My dad and his friend at work tried to learn Klingon so they could have conversations that no one else could understand, until someone came up and corrected them one day.