Is “Klingon” a species or is it the name of a racial or ethnic group? You don’t capitalize the name of a species, but you do capitalize the name of racial and ethnic groups, like African Americans.
Because of that, maybe it would be proper to say “We’re at war with the Klingons.” But, also “I’m not an expert on klingon biology.”
This gets confusing because in Sci Fi, the common idea is that humanity has reached a point where there are galactic empires. Because of that, a single planet rarely has more than one racial or ethnic group on it. Everybody from the planet Vulcan is part of one Vulcan racial, ethnic and cultural group. In fact, it’s pretty rare for there to be a warp-capable species who doesn’t have some unified government.
So, in most Sci Fi, the name of the planet is the name of the species, and also the name of the single racial and ethnic group that species belongs to. In the 21st century, “humans” is a species, because there’s no distinct racial or ethnic group that represents all of humanity. But, in the 31st century (assuming humans survive that long) maybe it will be Humans because we’ll all consider ourselves to be one unified group, and it will be useful to distinguish us from Siriusans, Procyonians, etc.
I think in the context of Star Trek, Klingons are a racial or ethnic group. They’re part of a galactic empire
Is “Klingon” a species or is it the name of a racial or ethnic group? You don’t capitalize the name of a species, but you do capitalize the name of racial and ethnic groups, like African Americans.
Because of that, maybe it would be proper to say “We’re at war with the Klingons.” But, also “I’m not an expert on klingon biology.”
This gets confusing because in Sci Fi, the common idea is that humanity has reached a point where there are galactic empires. Because of that, a single planet rarely has more than one racial or ethnic group on it. Everybody from the planet Vulcan is part of one Vulcan racial, ethnic and cultural group. In fact, it’s pretty rare for there to be a warp-capable species who doesn’t have some unified government.
So, in most Sci Fi, the name of the planet is the name of the species, and also the name of the single racial and ethnic group that species belongs to. In the 21st century, “humans” is a species, because there’s no distinct racial or ethnic group that represents all of humanity. But, in the 31st century (assuming humans survive that long) maybe it will be Humans because we’ll all consider ourselves to be one unified group, and it will be useful to distinguish us from Siriusans, Procyonians, etc.
I think in the context of Star Trek, Klingons are a racial or ethnic group. They’re part of a galactic empire