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Old 04-24-2020, 02:23 AM
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Watching SF Debris' review of "Firstborn" again...


PNQ: How come the Universal Translator never translates Klingon?


All I can think is that a condition of the Federation/Klingon alliance is that Federation translators don't translate Klingon by default, at least for commbadges and other unofficial communications. It would stand to reason that Klingons would learn the major languages of their enemies (Romulans seem to learn Klingon in this era, so there's precedent) and have demanded that the translators operate like this so they can keep certain secrets to themselves.



And it would stand to reason that not all Starfleet officers learn Klingon, relying on their translators when interacting with them. Picard, Riker, and Data seem to be the only ones on the E-D who have learned Klingon besides Worf himself.



Note that in TOS the Klingons seem to be speaking English and specifically point out that the Starfleet officers don't know "Klingonese".
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