Wales officially recognised by the Klingon empire thanks to Welsh Star Trek fan

Wales has boldly gone to where it has never gone before, after being officially recognised by the Klingon empire.

The Klingons, from the hugely popular science fiction franchise, Star Trek, have their own language that’s spoken by devotees around the world – and beyond.

Among them is IT expert Alex Greene from Wrexham, who has been a huge Star Trek fan since childhood, and began learning Klingon in the 1980s.

He says he pushed for Wales to be officially recognised because all the other nations of the UK had already been given Klingon names, and Ireland became known as “Eyre” in 2017. Now the new Klingon word for Wales is “we’lIS”, which is pronounced “WEH-leesh.”

The Welsh language is known as “we’lIS Hol” and a Welsh person is known as a “we’lISngan”.

The decision was made by the Klingon Language Institute, the educational body who are the world authority on the Klingon language. They work with Dr Mark Okrand who created the language to promote Klingon.

Alex is now one of only a handful of people in the UK who are able converse in the intricate and guttural language of the extra-terrestrial humanoid warriors.

He said: “It took a few years to pull some strings, but I finally got official recognition for Wales in the Klingon community. They’d already done Britain, England, Scotland and Ireland, so I made sure to fight for recognition of Wales.

“They’d done all the other nations of the UK, and Ireland was ‘Eyre’ in 2017, and it looked as if nobody else was going to finish the tea set, so I pushed for Wales to be recognised. And they finally confirmed it. Thanks to my efforts.

“This means that I can say ‘we’lISvaD tlhIngan Duy’a’ jIH’  – ‘I am the Klingon Ambassador to Wales.'”

‘Love languages’ 

He added: “I started learning Klingon as I always loved Star Trek and I also love languages.

“Klingon came about as it was the first time someone, American linguist Marc Okrand, had attempted to write a whole new language.

“He did it for the 1983 film Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock. He also invented the Vulcan language.

“It’s amazing and quite surprising how many people are now fluent and can hold meaningful conversations in pure Klingon. It has its own grammar, verbs and nouns as any other language has.”

Back in 2018, Alex wrote a poem in Kling that was premiered at the Bangor Music Festival, alongside a piece of music created with the Large Hadron Collider, something about which he remains “incredibly proud”.

According to Alex, the  premiere meant as much to him as winning the bardic chair at the National Eisteddod.

The poem, Space is Fierce, was all about the untamed universe and going into the dark unknown.

He said: “For me it’s huge. I’m very proud of my Welsh heritage. To have a poem of mine, written in Klingon and set to music, really is like winning the lottery or a national eisteddfod. I’m incredibly proud.

“The poem is really about memories and poses the question; after you finish your quest in space will you be remembered by anyone back home from where you started?

“I’ve also written English and Welsh versions of Space is Fierce so everyone can understand what the Klingon version is saying.”

Five years before the music festival Alex was  given the red carpet treatment when a cinema premiered a new Star Trek movie.

Alex was appointed an unofficial Klingon Ambassador to Wales by staff at the The Odeon cinema in Wrexham’s Eagles Meadow shopping centre as they prepares for the big night.