Alien Sounds : The Phonological and Lexical distribution of Klingon

Klingon, a ConLang created for the Star Trek franchise, is the subject of this study, which analyzes both its phonology and its lexicon. The requirement to sound "alien", at least to English ears, is the major aspect of Klingon phonology: many sounds in its phonemic inventory are thus highly unusual and seldom encountered entirely in other languages. Particularly, we will focus on the voiceless alveolar lateral affricate, transcribed as , and characterizing Klingon phonology starting with the name of the language itself. The article analyzes the distribution of this phoneme in Klingon lexicon, by identifying phonological restrictions and possible patterns to sound change.