Reflexion on the Klingons

[Cikomyr]

Ya know, after learning once that the Klingon's homeworld was named Qo'noS (pronounce "Khronos"), i used to wonder where the name "Klingon" came from. After all, in Star Trek, the species are named after their homeworld.

Vulcans are from Vulcan. Andorians are from Andor. Romulans from Romulus, Bajorans from Bajor, Cardassians from Cardassia. Only exception are species we dont know the real homeworld (Jem'Hadar, Vorta, Borg) and the Klingons.

Until I learned (i think its not 100% canon) that Qo'noS's star was named Klingon.

Well, that explained it. But then i had a little brush up on the Klingon Empire's history today (thank to Civilization Ex's youtube channel). I learned then that the Klingon Empire was founded by Khaless after overthrowing the Tyrant Molor.

Think about it. That was waaaaay before the specie we know as "Klingons" developped Warp travel. This means that Khaless literally named his Empire after their sun. The "Klingon Empire" means the "Empire of the Sun". With a clear ideal of planetary universality in his mind; rather than being region-specific (like the "Roman Empire")

Klingon is not a specie's name. It is a nationality. Its a cultural identity. To be "Klingon" is less about being a member of a specie, and more about being of the Empire. Its about behaving like a real citizen of the "Empire".

Made me consider Klingon culture differently.

[Razade]

Ya know, after learning once that the Klingon's homeworld was named Qo'noS (pronounce "Khronos"), i used to wonder where the name "Klingon" came from. After all, in Star Trek, the species are named after their homeworld.

Vulcans are from Vulcan. Andorians are from Andor. Romulans from Romulus, Bajorans from Bajor, Cardassians from Cardassia. Only exception are species we dont know the real homeworld (Jem'Hadar, Vorta, Borg) and the Klingons.

Until I learned (i think its not 100% canon) that Qo'noS's star was named Klingon.

Well, that explained it. But then i had a little brush up on the Klingon Empire's history today (thank to Civilization Ex's youtube channel). I learned then that the Klingon Empire was founded by Khaless after overthrowing the Tyrant Molor.

Think about it. That was waaaaay before the specie we know as "Klingons" developped Warp travel. This means that Khaless literally named his Empire after their sun. The "Klingon Empire" means the "Empire of the Sun". With a clear ideal of planetary universality in his mind; rather than being region-specific (like the "Roman Empire")

Klingon is not a specie's name. It is a nationality. Its a cultural identity. To be "Klingon" is less about being a member of a specie, and more about being of the Empire. Its about behaving like a real citizen of the "Empire".

Made me consider Klingon culture differently.

Humans aren't called Terrans or Solians or Solites or Solars. Sometimes a species in a setting aren't named after their home planet or home star. Also, the Klingons were named by Kahless. Also also, the Klingon word for Klingon is TlhIngan.

[Cikomyr]

Agreed that humans are an exception, but they always are in fiction because.. well, because we wrote the damn fiction.

Anything else you said is canon?

[Traab]

The main reason why most races are named after their home world is the same reason there are so many planets of hats. Simplicity on the part of the writer who just created an entire galactic federation and doesnt have ten thousand pages to devote to his interstellar silmarillion in order to give each planet a vibrant unique history and backstory thats more involved than, "Planet of warriors, planet of logical thinkers, planet of merchants." Then you flesh out the few main races that will play a major role in your story and elave the rest as an outline.

[Cikomyr]

I agree with you 100%

I still think that degree of nuance makes for an interesting mental insight.

[GloatingSwine]

Humans aren't called Terrans or Solians or Solites or Solars.

They are in Starcraft :P

[Wardog]

To be "Klingon" is less about being a member of a specie

I would never have thought Klingons were money (https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/specie)

[Ramza00]

In the world we live in we have many ways to name things.

Exonyms are names an external group names something.

Endonyms are names an internal group, self names something.

Many names for nations we have in English are Exonyms.

For example in the US we call the nation of Nippon, the nation of Japan (another internal name for Japan is Nihon.)

Greece is the Exonym for the nation of Greece which would be Ellada

Scotland is an Exonym for Alba

Spain is an Exonym for Espana

and so on

[Gnoman]

The main reason why most races are named after their home world is the same reason there are so many planets of hats. Simplicity on the part of the writer who just created an entire galactic federation and doesnt have ten thousand pages to devote to his interstellar silmarillion in order to give each planet a vibrant unique history and backstory thats more involved than, "Planet of warriors, planet of logical thinkers, planet of merchants." Then you flesh out the few main races that will play a major role in your story and elave the rest as an outline.

Nah. If we had a real world interstellar community, most species would be named based on the generally accepted name for their homeworld. For the most part, their own words for their kind would translate as "people" or "us", and the homeworld name would become the easiest way to distinguish species. The exception would be those that had a more distinct name for themselves (or, rather, already possessed a language that incorporated the concept of multiple intelligent species beyond "us" and "them") either because there were multiple species on a given planet or else because their name(s) for themselves had special philosophical meaning.

[JadedDM]

Klingon is not a specie's name. It is a nationality. Its a cultural identity. To be "Klingon" is less about being a member of a specie, and more about being of the Empire. Its about behaving like a real citizen of the "Empire".
It's interesting to note that in Star Trek Online, the Klingon Empire has absorbed the Orions, Nausicaans, Letheans and Gorn. They are all considered 'klingons' now, even though they are not the same species as the people from Qo'noS. So that seems to support your idea.

[Mando Knight]

Until I learned (i think its not 100% canon) that Qo'noS's star was named Klingon.

Only in some secondary material. The most recent reference materials (the 2002's Star Charts and 2013's Stellar Cartography) and most on-screen appearances call the whole system Qo'noS, both the star and the Klingon homeworld itself.

[Darth Ultron]

Ya know, after learning once that the Klingon's homeworld was named Qo'noS (pronounce "Khronos"), i used to wonder where the name "Klingon" came from. After all, in Star Trek, the species are named after their homeworld.

This is one of those odd things. See way back when they thought up of ''Klingons'' and an ''empire'' but never bothered to name the homeworld. Even as late as the '90's they were still calling the Klingon homeworld ''homeworld''. Unofficially, it was called ''Kling''. But they thought that sounded weak and dumb. So it got changed officially to Qo'noS and has been ever sense.

I think it was all the way until the 6th Star Trek movie before they finally used Qo'noS.

[Olinser]

Happens right here on Earth.

Americans are from America
Mexicans are from Mexico
British people are from Britain
Scottish people are from Scotland
Australians are from Australia
Spaniards are from Spain
Germans are from Germany
Egyptians are from Egypt
French are from France
Chinese are from China
Koreans are from Korea
Russians are from Russia

And then..

Dutch people are from The Netherlands


Conclusion - Klingons are Space Dutch

[Kislath]

Back in the day, the scuttlebutt was that before the Empire was formed ( by Khaless, but we didn't have a name for him at the time ), there was a "king" named Kling who did a lot of cool stuff and made a big impact.
The 1st Emperor would later name the new Empire after him.

Incidentally, their home star is the one we call Saggitarius. Klingons were even named Homo saggitarium.

All of that seems to have been forgotten in today's canon, though.

[Grytorm]

In the world we live in we have many ways to name things.

Exonyms are names an external group names something.

Endonyms are names an internal group, self names something.

Many names for nations we have in English are Exonyms.

For example in the US we call the nation of Nippon, the nation of Japan (another internal name for Japan is Nihon.)

Greece is the Exonym for the nation of Greece which would be Ellada

Scotland is an Exonym for Alba

Spain is an Exonym for Espana

and so on

Just wondering how names derived from mangling other names are considered. You seem to call them Exonym, which I just find interesting.


Also, makes me think of. Um, oh yes. What about names like Mexico which was originally one polity (which happened to rule a decent empire) and was then expanded to refer to the entire region?

[Coidzor]

They are in Starcraft :P

Also the Mirror Universe.

[Cheesegear]

Humans aren't called Terrans or Solians or Solites or Solars.

Of course not. That's dumb. We're Earthicans. :smalltongue:

https://inglespararolos.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/my-fellow-earthicans.png

[Kitten Champion]

Klingons uniquely got the money, time, and attention to really work out a cohesive visual aesthetic, internal politics, language, culture, religion, etc -- particularly with their prominence in the movies. The resources available there were considerable compared to every other race aside from Vulcans and Humans. Going as far as to give them an entirely new appearance for the films, and reshaping them to fit the new - albeit similar - concept of Space Vikings while other races were more marginally retooled for TNG and beyond.

Given that, they could confidently assume the viewer would be able to grasp that Qu'noS = Klingon. They also had the obvious benefit of not having a canonically named homeworld in TOS, giving lots of time to work on it.

Now, I still don't like the Klingons because... well, even with all the effort put into them they're still at the mercy of your standard hack Trek writer, and you got a lot of the cartoonish caricature-style writing that throws a banana peel under the whole fantasy for me.

[zimmerwald1915]

Humans aren't called Terrans or Solians or Solites or Solars. Sometimes a species in a setting aren't named after their home planet or home star. Also, the Klingons were named by Kahless. Also also, the Klingon word for Klingon is TlhIngan.
Apparently "human" is ultimately derived from proto-indo-european for "earthling," (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=human&allowed_in_frame=0) that is, thing created from the earth, conceived as soil. The connection persists today; we call particularly fertile soil, with lots of organic matter in it, humus. So really, we are named after the planet (in English and other [but not necessarily all?] indo-european languages). It just doesn't seem that way at first blush.

[Velaryon]

This is one of those odd things. See way back when they thought up of ''Klingons'' and an ''empire'' but never bothered to name the homeworld. Even as late as the '90's they were still calling the Klingon homeworld ''homeworld''. Unofficially, it was called ''Kling''. But they thought that sounded weak and dumb. So it got changed officially to Qo'noS and has been ever sense.

I think it was all the way until the 6th Star Trek movie before they finally used Qo'noS.

You beat me to it. For a long time they left the homeworld unnamed, then they were actually going to call it Kling but backed off because the name sounds dumb. There was actually a reference in the TNG episode "Heart of Glory (http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Heart_of_Glory_(episode))" to the "traitors of Kling." But then the name was changed to Qo'noS and I think we can all agree that sounds less dumb than Kling.

[Wardog]

Scotland is an Exonym for Alba


I'm not sure that's an accurate way to describe it.

Alba is the Gaelic name for Scotland (and originally applied to the whole of Britain - it shares an etymology with Albion).

Scotland is the English and Scots name for the island. ''Scot'' comes from Scoti which was originally a Latin exonym for the Gaels (who originally came from Ireland), but is used by the Scots themselves.

Given that most modern Scots aren't Gaelic speakers, and use the name ''Scotland'' in normal speach, I think that would make it an endonym rather than an exonym.

[DataNinja]

You beat me to it. For a long time they left the homeworld unnamed, then they were actually going to call it Kling but backed off because the name sounds dumb. There was actually a reference in the TNG episode "Heart of Glory (http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Heart_of_Glory_(episode))" to the "traitors of Kling." But then the name was changed to Qo'noS and I think we can all agree that sounds less dumb than Kling.

Yeah. If I remember correctly, the official explanation for that is that Kling is the name of a district on Qo'noS.

[SlyGuyMcFly]

[Snip]
Spain is an Exonym for Espana

and so on


This one's complicated by the fact that both 'Spain' and 'España' are derived from the Roman name for the area (Hispania) which is of course an exonym itself. Before that the Greeks called it Iberia (hence Iberian Peninsula), but there were a number of local cultures inhabiting the peninsula at the time. Some of them were Celts who moved in around the first millenium B.C.E., others had been around since, well, effectively forever. We don't know what any of these folks called their homeland, since archaeologists haven't found enough stuff with writing on it yet.


Of course, this all depends on how far back you want to go before it "stops counting". Southern France was probably once known as *Grunt* by the Cro-Magnon locals. :smalltongue:

[Velaryon]

Yeah. If I remember correctly, the official explanation for that is that Kling is the name of a district on Qo'noS.

Yeah, I think that's what they went with once they decided they weren't going to make Kling the name of the planet. That way the line in the show at least makes some kind of sense.

[Lord Fullbladder, Master of Goblins]

Humans aren't called Terrans or Solians or Solites or Solars. Sometimes a species in a setting aren't named after their home planet or home star. Also, the Klingons were named by Kahless. Also also, the Klingon word for Klingon is TlhIngan.

Several times throughout the franchise (honestly I think mostly Voyager) humans actually have been called Terrans.

And, though I'm sure it has never brought up since, we have the possibility of sentient cetaceans (Voyage Home, an initial concept for the Enterprise-D, one novel apparently mentioning a dolphin captain), so perhaps Terran would be inclusive of multiple sentient Earth species. Humans for those anthropocentric apes, Terran for "Humans and/or Whales," the same way, as JadedDM said, Star Trek Online lumps all the Empire's species under the umbrella of Klingon.