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Microsoft allies with the Klingon Empire to pad their stats

Microsoft boasts support for over 60 translation languages (as compared with language support for menus, spell check etc.) but look a little closer to see what’s in their list.

Here’s the current list of supported languages.

There are 65 in the current list including the latest arrival, Tamil.

‘Over 60 languages’ sounds great and it’s Microsoft hype which is often quoted by the press

Two Klingon languages

However, two of the languages are ‘Klingon’, a made-up language from Star Trek. (bottom of the second column, above).

Peter has watched Star Trek in all its iterations since 1967 and even he didn’t know there were TWO Klingon languages!  And he’s canny enough not to need more information or care.

We love the fun of having the ‘warrior language’ available but not as a way for Microsoft to pad their marketing hype.

Google Translate dropped their Klingon support back in 2015, maybe out of embarrassment that they could only support a single Klingon language!

Klingon has its own ISO language code: tlh  (ISO 639-2)

Why not more?

It’s hard to understand why Microsoft has limited itself in padding their numbers.

Redmond could easily get to ‘over 70 languages’.  With a little effort 80, 90 even 100 languages.  Here’s a few quick suggestions.

  • Sindarin, Quenya, Khuzdul, Westron/Common Speech from The Lord of the Rings
  • Vulcan, Romulan and Ferengi from Star Trek.
  • Valerian and Dothraki from Game of Thrones
  • Parseltongue from Harry Potter

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