Non-Roman Lettered Domain Name URLs: More Interesting Star Trek Websites?

If the planned use of domain names other than one’s currently using Roman or Latin letters gets an ok will the move lead to new, improved and more creative Star Trek websites?


By: Ringo Bones


Even though the various incarnations of Star Trek aired on TV and shown in movie theaters feature sentient beings from other worlds with an excellent grasp of the English language. Other Star Trek fans and I are probably wondering if this “scheme” was done in order to fit the particular episode or feature in the conveniently allotted time, isn’t it? But the existence of a vibrant Klingon language community only shows that the global Star Trek community could creatively exploit the recent ICANN approval of using domain names other than the Latin or Roman letter-based ones that are currently de rigueur.

Back in November 18, 2009, a UN backed conference held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on the use of non-Latin or non-Roman lettered domain names has finally been put forth for serious discussion. Which – to me, and everyone else, can be a good thing since millions of perfectly literate people worldwide still has trouble using the Internet since their native language doesn’t use Latin or roman letters. And most of the folks denied the “convenience” of using the Internet belong to emerging markets and / or economies like China and India. Not to mention Arabic speaking countries who must go through the inconvenience of learning English just to enjoy the privilege of enjoying the fruits of knowledge currently available on the world wide web. Being proficient of languages other than English – especially ones that don’t use Latin or Roman letters – does have its privileges, but how can it help in setting up more interesting, and I mean more “interesting” Star Trek websites?

In the present universe of the Star Trek fan, the only “extra-terrestrial” language currently developed – i.e. both spoken and used for translating Shakespearean works – is Klingon. And those that offer to teach Star Trek fans on how to read and write the Klingon alphabet or letters are few and far between. Imagine in the near future, Klingon language tutorial websites that caters to the typical hardcore Star Trek fan sporting domain name URLs that feature the Klingon alphabet or Klingon letters.

And after that, Vulcan language tutorial websites would emerge. Which will be more interesting since the scant Vulcan writings featured in most Star Trek episodes that I’ve seen so far looks suspiciously like Samaritan writing. Or what about the Romulan language where the sentient android Data with his positronic brain even has trouble mastering the complex verb roots of the language. Whatever happens, I think this would be a boon for us who can now set up our “specialist” websites sporting Cyrillic or Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji domain name URLs.