taH pagh taHbe'. That's Klingon for 'to be or not to be', the first line of Hamlet's soliloquy. You can watch the entire soliloquy on YouTube. In fact, the play Hamlet has been translated into Klingon in its entirety. (Well, some would claim that the original was in Klingon, but that's another matter.) You can even buy the book on Amazon for $14.41. There's even a Kindle edition! And that's just one of a number of classic works which are available in Klingon. Search the web a bit and you will find and incredible number of resources on and in the Klingon language. Rather surprising, considering that Klingon is a deliberately constructed language with no native speakers.
What does Klingon have to do with Alaska Native languages? Besides the fact that Klingon was constructed by a linguist (Marc Okrand) who had studied Native American languages, the significance of Klingon lies in its devoted community of speakers and learners. Lacking a native speaker base, Klingon relies entirely on second-language learners for its linguistic community. As with many endangered Alaskan languages, Klingon is not heard casually on the street. Learners of Klingon do not have the luxury of immersing themselves in the language while they go about their everyday lives. Rather, they must seek out opportunities to speak and hear Klingon. They must make a deliberate effort to create a community of Klingon speakers. In this respect the struggle--if it can be called that--to maintain Klingon shares much in common with the struggle to maintain Alaska Native languages.
Of course the situations aren't completely parallel. For one, the structure of Klingon is relatively simple. Though Klingon has a couple of "odd" sounds, it is overall much less challenging to pronounce than is Athabascan. And while Klingon has a bit of interesting morphology, it comes nowhere near the complex word structures found in Athabascan and Eskimo languages. And of course the lack of first-language speaker community ("elders") relieves much of the social pressure on learners.
Nevertheless, there is much we could learn from the Klingon language community. One of the most difficult challenges facing Native language revitalization today is the need to develop and maintain secondary language communities apart from the linguistic mainstream. New learners of Alaska Native languages need venues in which to use the language. They need an outlet for creative language activities and a way to enjoy language art created by others. So why not start with Hamlet? To be or not to be? In Dena'ina. In Yup'ik. In Tlingit. If a community of Star Trek fans can create a body of translated literature for an imagined language like Klingon, then surely a similarly obsessed community of learners can do the same for the very real indigenous languages of Alaska.
Qapla'!
p.s., stayed tuned for Tlingit Macbeth.....