Rhona Fenwick

Rhona Fenwick, 2016
Dr.
Rhona Fenwick (
Klingon name:
QeS, born 1983 in Brisbane, Australia; formerly known as Rohan) is an Australian
Klingonist, one of several
KLI Grammarians. She holds the
KLCP rank of
po'wI' (expert), and is the only active Australian Klingonist so qualified. She began learning Klingon in
2001, subsequently serving as
Beginners' Grammarian from 10 December
2004 until 31 December
2005.
Initially known as
ro'Han (
circa 2001), Rhona's Klingon
alter ego used to be in full
QeS lagh, later
QeS la' after achieving her undergraduate qualifications. She no longer regularly uses a title as part of her Klingon name (though as a retired Grammarian, her appropriate title is now
'utlh). She chose the name
QeS for no other reason than because it was an otherwise meaningless monosyllable beginning with a capital letter; it carries no special meaning.
Outside of Klingon circles, Rhona is an archaeologist and linguist with research interests in Turkey and the Caucasus. She received her doctorate in archaeology from the University of Queensland in
2013.
Motives for learning Klingon
From a message sent to the mailing list on 29 April 2016:
I learned Klingon not because of Star Trek, but because I was fascinated by the idea that someone could build a whole language from scratch (this was when I was much younger - I was 17 when I started learning). Not like Esperanto - I tried it first, and found it too pedestrianly European without the benefits of learning a natural European language like Spanish or Danish or Greek - but as soon as I started learning how unique and different Klingon is as a language, I was hooked. I actually became a Star Trek fan because of Klingon, not the other way around.
Involvement with the Klingon language community
Trivia
The Klingon word
'an'or fossil is a quite obvious pun based on Rhona's name spelled backwards. (And as an archaeologist with an enthusiasm for palaeontology, Rhona confesses, she does indeed spend a goodly amount of her time around
'an'ormey of various kinds.)
See also
References
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