As a tie-in to the recently released motion picture Star Trek Into Darkness, Microsoft’s Bing has added two versions of the fictional alien Klingon language to its official automated translator tool.
Die-hard “Star Trek” fans are sure to rejoice now that Bing, Microsoft Corp.’s Internet search engine, has added not one, but two versions of the Klingon language in its web-based automated translation service.
Searchers can find phrases in either Roman characters or written in the alphabet of the Klingon home world, Kronos.
The move is part of a broad marketing partnership between the software giant and Paramount Pictures, following the release of “Star Trek Into Darkness” in May of 2013.
The Bing service will automatically translate text written in any one of 41 supported languages — including Arabic, Chinese, French, Hebrew and Urdu — into Klingon. And for those who may already be proficient in the language, words or phrases written in Klingon can be translated into the more than three dozen available tongues.
Bing developed the translator with help from Microsoft engineer Eric Andeen, who happens to be one of the few people in the world who actually speaks Klingon.
“We have people who understand the deep science of linguistics and we also have people who are passionate about the “Star Trek” franchise,” said Craig Beilinson, director of communications for Bing. “This was a labor of love from a lot of different avenues.”
Klingon was developed by linguist Marc Okrand, who based the language on vocabulary created by “Star Trek” actor James Doohan, who died in 2005. Okrand is the president of the board at a Virginia-based theater company that put on a 2010 production of “Hamlet” completely in Klingon. Okrand also had some involvement with the creation of another “Star Trek” language, Vulcan.
In addition to consulting Andeen, Bing worked with Okrand on developing the translator.
“Recognizing Klingon language on the Bing translator, along with other elements of this partnership, truly underscores the pop culture relevance of the film,” said LeeAnne Stables, executive vice president of worldwide marketing partnerships for Paramount.
Star Trek fans who are on the go will be glad to learn that the Klingon translator will also be available on Bing’s Windows Phone application.
