What do klingons call humans

In that regard, Klingon is the standard-bearer—and countless others have followed. But its most diehard speakers are still Trek fans, who—like Windsor—have given the language a life beyond the screen. Whether you're meeting a Klingon for a beer, in need of a grave insult, or begging for your life, this guide has you covered. And here's an International Phonetic Association pronunciation chart, just in case you need help telling a velar fricative from a glottal plosive.

Why say "hello" when you can issue an order, instead? But be prepared for an answer that will lead to either Bloodwine or the taste of defeat. And, hopefully, your escape. Of course, half-human Federation emissary, K'Ehleyr thought it was just more "Klingon nonsense" and "dumb ideas about honor. Lieutenant Worf says Earth and humanoid females like the Edo are too fragile for what his race considers love, although that would likely apply to a Klingon of either gender with a human mate.

A roaring yell akin to the death wail is the Klingon female's mating call, Worf says, followed by their hurling of heavy objects and clawing. The male responds by reading love poetry — and ducking a lot. The actual act of love can be intermingled with pain and include the Klingons' highly developed sense of smell.

Once aroused, the combat as well as passion instinct appears hard to quell; it takes a sharp command to snap Lieutenant Worf and later K'Ehleyr out of their bloodrush. Klingons usually mate for life, celebrated with a solemn Oath of Union, most often in private, rather than in a public ceremony like marriage; judging by Lieutenant Worf's initial issuance of the Oath of Union to K'Ehleyr, the Oath doesn't appear include much talking, and no dancing or crying as in human weddings.

If Lieutenant Worf is any example, male chauvinism is much more pronounced in mainstream Klingon society than among humans. Lieutenant Worf echoes the modern Klingon attitude toward Romulans when he says the enemy "considers humans and Klingons a waste of skin".

Romulans and Klingons having been "blood enemies" for 75 years or since about , after an extremely brief alliance. Klingons apparently hold the Ferengi with almost as much disdain as they do Romulans, thinking them loud of talk, yet weak in action.

Klingon officers do not let their children live with them as a general rule, although "the son of a Klingon is a man the day he can first hold a blade".

Lieutenant Worf allows his son, Alexander , to stay with him on the Galaxy- class Enterprise when other options run out, though he says it is inappropriate for a Klingon to receive family while on duty and Klag says a Klingon "is his work, not his family. Klingons are remarkably skilled hunters, relying on their keen olfactory senses to pick up and stalk their prey.

They eat their meat raw, seasoned more strongly than humans prefer, and find the human tradition of "burning their meat" to be somewhat repulsive.

If Lieutenant Worf is any clue, they regard swimming with as much disdain as they do bathing. Lieutenant Worf contends that love poetry and the great novel both reached their height with the Klingons. T'kar and Yeto were two more Klingons who had no respect for the Klingon Empire's current state of affairs.

Kang fretted that the warrior ethic was lost among modern Klingons who would open restaurants and such. Science Officer Dax said that getting Kang angry at Curzon was the only way to begin to create a bond between the two — a Klingon truism, Kang agreed. The custom of naming godparents or other relatives is practiced among Klingons as well as humans. The Jem'Hadar , Third Talak'talan, expressed regret that his first experience with an Alpha Quadrant being was not with a Klingon warrior, but with Federation humans and a Ferengi instead, both of whom he considered weak.

Despite the disillusionment and disrespect of some Klingons, Klingon honor still counts among the peoples. D'Ghor was not allowed to claim the House of Kozak based on financial debts alone, and he was stopped and shamed while attacking the unarmed Quark before the High Council. DS9 : " You Are Cordially Invited " Klingon women were treated as equals, except in politics and matters of inheritance.

Law prohibited them from serving in the High Council and they could not take control of their Houses unless they had the money and no male successors of the lineage. Otherwise, Klingon women were expected to exhibit the same physical prowess and lust for blood and honor as the men. Klingon society functioned through a system of family reputation and honor. Tradition was an integral part of their lives and breaking from observances was considered a grievous insult to society, an insult not forgotten easily.

An offense usually brought shame to the offender's name for several generations. The highest shame was discommendation , an action by the High Council to officially strip a Klingon of his personal or family honor.

Bloodlines and relations were also taken very seriously by any "true" Klingon. Lines comprised more than mere family members. TNG : " New Ground ". The military was integral to Klingon society, as it provides opportunities for warriors to die in battle.

For the same purpose, the Empire often seeks to expand through conquest. Discipline was strictly enforced, by one's superiors and subordinates both; the latter may assassinate his superior and take his place. This gives Humans the false impression that there are no rules, but in fact, this can be done only under certain conditions, dereliction of duty and cowardice among them, and the challenge can be made only to a direct superior. An integral part of tradition was the various rituals that marked milestones in a Klingon's life or the history of the Empire.

Most notable of the rites was the Rite of Succession , which a future leader of the Empire had to complete with a valid Arbiter of Succession Captain Jean-Luc Picard , in the case of Gowron overseeing the proceedings. Before the Rite could begin, there was another elaborate ceremony needed to confirm the death of the previous leader. This was known as the Sonchi ceremony. TNG : " The Icarus Factor " If the house that an individual Klingon belonged to was dissolved or fell into dishonor, he could be adopted into another house through the R'uustai or alternative ceremonies that symbolically marked the joining of kinship and allegiance.

The Right of Vengeance , allowed Klingons to seek redress for the deaths of their family members by engaging the one responsible in single combat. The right was so important, that even the discommended could claim it against important political figures, as the discommended Worf was able to challenge Duras a candidate for the title of Chancellor. TNG : " Reunion ". Klingons were extremely territorial. According to the first known Klingon linguist, there was no such thing as an "insignificant corner of Klingon space".

ENT : " Bounty ". Like their Human , Cardassian , Vulcan , and Romulan counterparts, Klingons and many of the Milky Way's species all shared a common ancestry back to the ancient humanoids and the DNA code they produced and seeded across the galaxy.

Though each evolved under separate conditions from each other, their shared DNA allowed these species to remain roughly compatible and viable with each other. Possessing extreme strength and speed, early Klingons were quite large, weighing up to kilograms. They were armored with an exoskeleton , with spines and bony plates protruding from their sides, upper arms, and back, arms ended with clawed pincers.

On their face were venom sacs , filled with bio-acidic compound and spitting glands inside their mouth that were used for defense and to mark territory. Along with these sacs, these early Klingons had two mandibles protruded from their lower jaw. TNG : " Genesis ". These prehistoric males used vocalizations to frighten other predators , mark its territory, and commence its mating process.

These early Klingons mating rituals involving biting its intended mate, to induce pheromone production in the sebaceous glands. Once the mate was ready, the pheromones drew the male Klingon back to its location. Modern Klingons developed a varied line of physical attributes, ranging from well pronounced cranial ridges to what was best described with the dysphemism "pointy-headed", as coined by Harry Mudd.

Like most humanoids, the essence of the Klingon anatomical form consisted of a head , neck , torso , and four limbs. Internally, the Klingon anatomy was markedly different from that of other humanoids. There was a great deal more multiple redundancies in their organs, a principle they called brak'lul. This allowed Klingons to survive severe injuries in battle.

They had twenty-three ribs , two livers , an eight-chambered heart , three lungs , two urinary tracts , and even redundant neural function as well as multiple stomachs.

Some geneticists believed that the extra organs, notably the third lung, evolved to give Klingons greater stamina on the battlefield. Klingons had relatively little knowledge of their own biology and their medicine was very poorly developed. This was largely due to their warrior traditions — a Klingon who was wounded was expected to be left to either survive through his own strength, die, or undergo the hegh'bat , a form of ritual suicide.

The most distinctive feature of the modern Klingon was a sagittal crest, beginning on the forehead and often continuing over the skull.

Klingons head shape differed between individuals, with some having skulls that extended backwards into an elongated cone shape. TNG : " Descent ". The lower half of the face tended to follow a familiar humanoid appearance, and even the ridges on the back of their heads if any tend to be less pronounced and slight, leaving the general shape as Human skull and covered in more skin than bone see Chang for example , it was in these regions where hair was most likely seen to grow.

Eyebrows tend to grow in a more diagonal direction than other humanoids, but also had noticeably diagonal suborbital ridges where eyebrows otherwise existed.

Klingons ears included both external auricle and pinna and recessed pinna. External auricle structures tended to be rounded, and the recessed pinna tended to come to a point before forming into the back of the head, Klingons of the alternate reality had pointed auricles of a similar size and shape to the recessed pinna, with slight ridges along the top.

Klingon eyes were generally round in size and shape consisting of varying shades with white sclera. They may flash more white of their eyes which they use to intimidate a rival or enemy. Klingons, especially females, were said to lack tear ducts. They also had more physically pronounced cheeks, and a vertical ridge that went down their chin into their neck which expanded into ridges on their upper chest and shoulders and between the breasts of at least the females.

The neck structure varied from smooth flesh to flesh containing pits and bony structures that led up the side of their head, and down the back of their head and spine. Klingon noses tended to vary having between several slight horizontal ridges on the brow of their noses, or a single vertical ridge or crack from the top of the brow to the tip of the nose to being wider and flatter, nearly flush against the forehead.

They also had heavier ridges over their nostrils, compared to the two minimally ridged or un-ridged nostrils. The nose tended to lay flatter on the face than in other Klingons as well and wider. Klingon teeth typically consisted of two sharp fangs incisors with crooked or sharpened teeth it was said they sharpen their teeth, often before going into battle. Klingons of both sexes usually had hair on their heads while male Klingons often had facial hair as well.

TNG : " Schisms " Accelerated hair growth was often experienced by Klingons during puberty, or jak'tahla , along with severe mood swings and unusual aggressive tendencies. Star Trek: Insurrection Klingon hair greyed with age. The chest of the Klingon males appeared to be largely smooth and slick, while the females had a large chest area with ridges that came down to the top of their breasts across their shoulders. The backs of these Klingons were highly covered with ridges from shoulder to shoulder and across the small of their back radiating from highly defined and thickly ridged spines.

The sides of the abdomen of at least the females appeared to be highly defined with rib-like ridges as well. The buttocks region was even heavily ridged. Klingons had ridged spines, chests and feet though these ridges and other armor like structures extend out covering almost the entire back, sides and abdominal region on the 'pointy-headed' Klingons.

This "defect" tended to run in Klingon families, especially among females. Federation medicine, fortunately, advanced beyond that, allowing an additional choice of treatment involving genetic modification of the fetus. VOY : " Lineage ". Klingons afflicted with the augment virus , propagated by a mutation of the Levodian flu was inadvertently created by Klingon researchers who were attempting to bio-engineer enhanced warriors using DNA from genetically-modified Human embryos left over from Earth 's Eugenics Wars.

These Klingons lost their cranial ridge features, and were in essence, remarkably similar in appearance to modern Humans. ENT : " Affliction ", et al. Though the cure for the virus had been distributed throughout the Empire, the afflicted Klingons' DNA had been altered by the virus, and condition was passed onto the descendants of the infected.

Initially there were millions of Klingons who had to live with the disfigurement for well over a century. Though Human in appearance and distinguishable primarily by tricorder readings alone, Tribbles were still able to single out and identify these Klingons. Klingon pregnancies normally ran thirty weeks, but with mixed species, gestation times were shorter. As early as seven weeks at which point a Human fetus doesn't even have legs a fetus with a single Klingon grandparent was already able to kick the uterine wall hard enough to be felt externally.

VOY : " Lineage " Klingons were said to have a different, not fully compatible number of reproductive organs than Humans. The odds against Klingon-Human conceptions were rather high. However, when successful, Klingon and Human metabolisms sometimes clashed, causing biochemical fluctuations in the mother, which may lead to fainting. It is possible to see the eventual phenotype of a hybrid while the fetus is still gestating using a holographic program and projection.

If early enough in development, genetic manipulation can be taken to remove Klingon DNA from the developing fetus. Hybridization revealed that Klingon DNA tended to be more dominantly expressive in the physical appearance of their offspring.

This was found to be especially true in the case of hair color and appearance of cranial ridges, especially with Humans. In the case of Romulan -Klingon hybridization, the ears were the only visible telltale indication of their non-Klingon heritage. Their skin had a shimmery slick metallic semi-reflective sheen to it.

Albino Klingons were often considered outcasts in Klingon society. Klingon children matured far more quickly than Human children. At the age of only one Earth year, a Klingon child had the appearance a Human child had at about four. By the age of eight Earth years, a Klingon attained the maturity a Human did not reach until about age sixteen. Star Trek: Insurrection Like other mammalian species, Klingon females were capable of lactating to breast-feed infants.

Klingons tended to live for over years. Even into advanced old age, Klingons were usually still strong enough for combat, but were still susceptible to various mental conditions associated with old age. While as a whole, Klingons were larger and physically stronger than most species, they possessed a much lower tolerance to the cold. Doctor Julian Bashir once sarcastically noted that the natural odor produced by Klingons was comparable to an "earthy, peaty aroma with a touch of lilac. Klingons such as Kurn had the instinctive ability to sense the decision to kill by looking into the eyes of their opponents.

DS9 : " Sons of Mogh " Worf despite being raised by Humans on Earth, retained this ability when he sensed Martok's warrior spirit returning enough to win their duel without killing Worf.