d'Armond Speers: Dad Spoke Only Klingon To Son For Three Years

d'Armond Speers spoke only Klingon to his son for the first three years of his child's life, the Minnesota Daily reports.

Speers says that he spent the first few years of his son's life speaking to him in the invented language of the alien race featured in the series "Star Trek" in order to better understand how children learn languages. Meanwhile, Speers' wife continued to address the child in English.

Speers told the Minnesota Daily,

I was interested in the question of whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would acquire it like any human language. [...] He was definitely starting to learn it.

Speers reports he "still gets nostalgic when he recalls singing the Klingon lullaby 'May the Empire Endure'" with his son.

Listen to Speers' son singing the Klingon Imperial Anthem here.

Wired reported on Speers' language experiment in a 1999 article in which Speers described the challenge of speaking to his infant son given that the Klingon language lacked words such as "diaper" and "bottle."

The article notes,

So Speers found himself using "thing which is flat" for table. "Alec very rarely spoke back to me in Klingon, although when he did, his pronunciation was excellent and he never confused English words with Klingon words," Speers says.

Eventually, Speers stopped using Klingon to communicate with his son, saying that his son "stopped listening to me when I spoke in Klingon" and "it was clear that he didn't enjoy it, and I didn't want to make it into a problem."

His son, now in high school, does not speak any Klingon, according to the Minnesota Daily.

Despite his interest in Klingon, Speers says he is not a Star Trek "fanatic."

I don't go to 'Star Trek' conventions, I don't wear the fake forehead. [...] I'm a linguist.

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Comments

[gjohnthehorrible]

08:21 AM on 11/21/2009

See, we have already found Extraterrestrial life.

[tivl82]

07:19 PM on 11/20/2009

This is sad.

I've grown up tri-langual. It's common to grow up bi-langual in Belgium and many people in my family are brought up where the mother speaks one language and the father the other. Yet, exposing your child to a language that's imagined as "an experiment" is wrong and pointless. If the guy had picked up a *real* language, the child would still experience benefit from it. Now, not so much. Maybe confusion.

[CryptoSolipsist]

08:11 PM on 11/20/2009

Even if the child doesn't remember a single word of Klingon, he still received a great deal of benefit from learning a new language at a young and formative age. The kid in question is now 15 years old, and by all accounts he grew up happy, healthy, well-adjusted, and now speaks several "real" languages. So where's the harm?

[Principaldad]

04:04 AM on 11/22/2009

The claim that the child received a benefit from learning Klingon is not a supportable statement based on the available evidence. It is something you suspect because there is evidence that learning a second language at a young age is beneficial. However, it has been pointed out repeatedly that Klingon is not a typical second language. It isn't just artificial. It was designed to be non-human and outrageously difficult.

I doubt there was ever any harm, or even the potential for harm. However, it is a bit odd to experiment on your own child just to see what will happen. Most parents try things that they think will work with their children. As a linguist, this man knew several languages. He could have chosen any of them. Instead he chose the artificial one with an inadequate vocabulary and outrageously difficult grammar and syntax. He did this not because he thought it would be best for his son, but because he was curious.

By the way, do you know Speers personally? I have not seen the claim that the son speaks multiple languages.

[dogman44]

05:45 PM on 11/20/2009

How does one learn Klingon? Is there a dictionary or something? The kid would
have been better off had dad experimented on him with a real language.

[PaganCanuck]

05:50 PM on 11/20/2009

Yep, I'm pretty sure you can buy a complete English-Klingon phrase book and dictionary.

I dated a weirdo once. Well, more than once, but that's not relevant here.

[dogman44]

06:08 PM on 11/20/2009

I wanna hear more about the weirdos!!!!!!

[yesIcan]

06:39 PM on 11/20/2009

LOL! The book for all those home on Friday and Saturday nights at home.

[the-lexicon]

04:44 PM on 11/20/2009

ALL languages are "made up" languages....right?

or not?

[bowthai]

04:24 PM on 11/20/2009

Um, so the dad could have learned an actual second language but chose Klingon why? I think Latin might have been more useful.

[GravitonX]

04:13 PM on 11/20/2009

Maltz! Chaw-ee-chu! (sp?)

[Dixieboy]

03:59 PM on 11/20/2009

And one time at band camp.....

[Bitsko]

03:44 PM on 11/20/2009

A good de-pantsing is in order.

[A Meat Beetle]

03:15 PM on 11/20/2009

I liked the original STAR TREK series (a960s), could take or leave the others. But MAN those trekkies can be a strange bunch. There is a bar here in Portland that has Klingon Karaoke!

[Pem3]

10:10 PM on 11/20/2009

Drunk people trying to sing in Klingon that could be entertaining for a few drinks.

[Moshe]

03:12 PM on 11/20/2009

So just for fun, let's all speak only made-up languages to this guy.

I'm guessing after 3 years of that, he won't find his experiment with his son so entertaining.

[Gidster]

04:19 PM on 11/20/2009

The fact that this was done on a grand scale 45 years ago did not enter his mind?

[Gidster]

04:20 PM on 11/20/2009

The study of how children learn to speak, not the Klingon

[Exene]

03:10 PM on 11/20/2009

"I was interested in the question of whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would acquire it like any human language."

He does know that Klingon is a human language, right? That Klingons aren't real?

[teepeeyoyo]

03:02 PM on 11/20/2009

Classic story of life imitating art, only it didn't.....good for the son.

[youwrackdisiprine]

03:00 PM on 11/20/2009

Perhaps today IS a good day to learn Klingon as a second language!

Kaplah!

[LeaderofMen]

02:54 PM on 11/20/2009

He's a 'linguist'? Okay, I'm a Trekker from way back and I love linguistics, but even I know all you have to do is just speak to kids in a NATURAL foreign language to accomplish the same end.

This is just a little weird. And you'll note that the kid doesn't speak Klingon either.

[marcain]

02:52 PM on 11/20/2009

Wow, I didn't know that nerds spawn.

[macweenie]

04:10 PM on 11/20/2009

If they didn't we'd all still be plowing our fields behind draft horses, churning butter by hand, and complaining about how the Whigs are threatening the American way of life.