- The German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW)
is celebrating 10 years of its online service by adding a new language
to the 30 it already publishes - Klingon.
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- The language was developed for the Star Trek television
and film series and is spoken by a warrior race of alien bad-guys from
the planet Qo'noS.
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- In a futuristic leap, the Klingon pages appear on DW's
web site under the date "September 2379", and describe Germany
and the radio station at the start of the 21st Century.
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- The Berlin Wall has fallen, the Cold War has ended and
Klingons - once the sworn enemies of Star Trek hero Captain Kirk - are
now accepted as allies in the new world order.
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- And it is in this spirit that DW has launched its Klingon
service.
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- Cars and football
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- The Klingon pages also have a serious side, publicising
forthcoming additions to DW's web presence, such as a much-expanded Arabic
service and an international weblog competition.
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- The pages describe Germany as a nation of car lovers
and football fans, and "underline the station's philosophy of multicultural,
intergalactic openness", according to DW director Erik Bettermann.
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- "We should celebrate our 10-year presence in the
online universe with a cross-border language. This should help users from
other galaxies get an impression of Germany."
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- The language was created in 1984 by linguist Marc Okrund
for Paramount Pictures, and has caught the imagination of science fiction
fans.
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- The works of Shakespeare and the Bible have already been
translated into Klingon. There is even a Klingon Language Institute (www.kli.org).
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- Taken seriously
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- Guido Baumhauer, head of DW's Online services, told the
BBC that although the pages were initially published as a joke by DW engineers
in their spare time, he has been taken aback by their popularity.
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- Star Trek fans and linguists "have taken it very
seriously", he said, "and we have even been complimented on our
use of the 'High Klingon' dialect."
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- He declined to give a quote for Klingon readers, saying
only "tlhIngan Hol vIjatlhlaHbe'" - "I do not speak Klingon".
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- For non-Klingon speakers, the pages in the Klingon language
also appear in English and German.
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- BBC Monitoring , based in Caversham in southern England,
selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news
agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
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- © BBC MMIV http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3658310.stm
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