Klingon (zlngan) Braille code

Tamara Kearney
Commonwealth Braille and Talking book Cooperative

Abstract

This paper presents a proposal for a Braille code for the Klingon language. At the time if this writing the Klingon language does not have a Braille code. The absents of such means that blind speakers of the Klingon language are unable to learn and read the language in its native form or to have understanding of the Klingon writing system. This braille code seeks to address this problem and to provide full literacy to blind speakers of this language.
—Tamara Kearney, Lawrence, Kansas April 1, 2019

Introduction

To facilitate ease in learning the Klingon braille code, I have, as much as possible, tried to match its symbols to things with which a new learner of the code is already familiar. Given the combative nature of the Klingons it would seem to be a safe assumption that blindness, acquired in battle, is a common condition in the population.

My aim has been to develop a code that follows a logical pattern, and is easy to both learn and reproduce. My fervent hope is that people will learn it, and that literature will be produced in it.

Braille, as a rule, requires much more space to represent the same information than does print. This is the case with this Braille code as well which adds about one-third more space to the length of any written passage. This is expected and is consistent with Braille in other languages.

History of the Klingon language

The Klingon language, sometimes called Klingonese, is the constructed language spoken by the fictional Klingons in the Star Trek universe.

Described in the 1985 book The Klingon Dictionary by Marc Okrand and deliberately designed to sound "alien", it has a number of typologically uncommon features. The language's basic sound, along with a few words, was first devised by actor James Doohan ("Scotty") and producer Jon Povill for Star Trek: The Motion Picture. That film marked the first time the language had been heard on screen. Klingon was developed by Okrand into a full fledged language.

The Klingon language has no notion of upper and lower case letters, nor does it employ any form of punctuation. Sentences are written on centre justified lines one under the other.

History of Braille

Braille is named after its creator, Frenchman Louis Braille, who became blind as a result of a childhood accident. At the age of 15, Braille developed his code for the French alphabet in 1824 as an improvement on night writing used by the French army of the time. He published his system, which subsequently included musical notation, in 1829.

Today Braille is an international standard for tactile reading. Braille codes have been developed for most languages having a written form. Braille literacy and education is important for developing reading skills among blind and visually impaired children. Braille literacy directly correlates with higher employment rates in this population.

The Braille cell

Braille characters are small rectangular blocks called cells that contain tiny palpable bumps called raised dots. The number and arrangement of these dots distinguish one character from another. The dots are numbered from 1 to 6 starting at the left column 1,2,3 and followed by the right column 4,5,6. This permits the notation of Braille cells by numbers as used in the tables below.

1 ●● 4
2 ●● 5
3 ●● 6

Table of the Klingon Braille code

The whole representation of the Klingon is presented below. It is represented in the Klingon glyph, The Braille and then the Braille pattern

a a 1	b b 12	c c 13	d d 145	e e 15	g g 1245
h h 125	i i 24	j j 245	l l 123	m m 134	n n 1345
f ] 12456	o o 135	p p 1234	q q 12345	k ⠿ 123456	r r 1235
s s 234	t t 2345	z \ 1256	u u 136	v v 1236	w w 2456
y y 13456	' " 5

Numbers

Numbers follows the standard Nemeth Code usage.

Number	Braille	Dots
1	1	2
2	2	23
3	3	25
4	4	256
5	5	26
6	6	235
7	7	2356
8	8	236
9	9	35
0	0	356

Indicators

Braille indicators are used to show typographic and other information in the print. This code follows the standard Unified English Braille usage.

Examples

zlngan (Klingon): \lngan