The Klingon Way

The Klingon Way

The Klingon Way (abbreviated TKW) is the second book about the Klingon language by Marc Okrand and was published in 1996 by Pocket Books.

Contents of this page:

Contents
Corrections
Translations
Audio book
Trivia
Details
See also
References

It contains 156 proverbs and expressions which are based on episode quotes from Star Trek. Each page is made of one or two phrases written in both English and Klingon, followed by a short paragraph of cultural background information. There is no grammar described in this book, but since it contains tons of phrases, it was the first and even today still the best collection of canon sentences. All new words appearing in this book are listed in Klingon For The Galactic Traveler. See The Klingon Way Phrases for the complete list of all phrases.

This book is the first canon source using punctuation while writing Klingon.

From the cover:

For many years, Klingons have been the premier warriors in the galaxy. Regarded across known space with fear and awe, few beings understand the true depth and greatness of the Klingon culture.

Noted Klingon language and cultural expert Marc Okrand collects the wisdom of these great warriors, taking proverbs and quotes from some of its greatest thinkers and bringing Klingon philosophy to lesser races across the galaxy.

Corrections

There is a small difference between the first and the second print: In the first print, the word vanglu'taHvIS on page 55 had an upper case I (eye) were it should should have been lower case l (ell). This was fixed in the second print.

On page 20 of the first print, the caption of the photo said incorrectly:
"Worf and his brother Kurn (Tony Todd) listen silently as the charges are read against their father."

This was corrected in the second print into:
"As the charges against his father are sited by Duras (Patrick Massett), Worf listens silently."

Kurn's actor's name was then later added on page 52:
"Kurn (Tony Todd), Worf's newly discovered brother, brings him word of the charges of treason against their father."

The first print said:
"Worf's newly discovered brother brings him word of the charges of treason against their father."

Translations

The book has been translated and published in German in 1997 with the title "Die Ehre der Klingonen".

Audio book

audio book

the audio tape

The audio version of this book was published in the same year by Simon & Schuster, a subdivison of Pocket Books. It was spoken by Michael Dorn and Roxann Biggs-Dawson. Since Marc Okrand was not involved in the production of that tape, it is not regarded as a canon example of Klingon. The pronunciation of the actors on the audio book version is very bad. Beginners of Klingon should never listen to it, because it is not useful for learning.

The audio tape has a running time of approximately 75 minutes. It was produced by Florence Barrau-Adams(1) and Sloane Seaman(2), who have both produced several Star Trek related audio books. Production assistant was Eric Sprague.

Trivia

old cover of The Klingon Way

In the first commercial announcement of this book, the working title of the book was displayed as "The Klingon Book of Virtues" (see photo), but that cover was never in print. Even today, many online sellers still use that phrase to refer to the book. (3)
The photo on the front cover (taken by television photographer Danny Feld(4)) displays three famous Klingons from the original series, reunited in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Blood Oath": qor (Kor), qolotlh (Koloth) and qeng (Kang). The building in the background is the Millard House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1923 and built in Pasadena, California.

Details

	book	tape
Author	Marc Okrand	Marc Okrand
Published	May 1996	November 1996
Publisher	Pocket Books	Simon & Schuster
ISBN	0-671-53755-5	0-671-57380-2
Pages	214	75 min
Size	135 x 210 mm	106 x 173 mm
Weight	252 g	88 g