The hand-held, flip-open communicators of the original "Star Trek" were now a thing of the past. It's also established throughout "Next Generation" that the comm badges are location trackers.

For many decades, fans of Star Trek: The Original Series have believed that ... in "The Doomsday Machine," wearing a different badge aboard the U.S.S. Constellation, only further confirmed this ...

This implies that Star Trek: The Original Series' Klingons ... and being able to speak it is a badge of honor among Star Trek ...