Real World article
(written from a Production point of view)
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Marc Okrand

Marc Okrand (born 3 July 1948; age 72) is the inventor of the Klingon language. He initially created the Vulcan dialogue in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. He was hired by Paramount Pictures to invent the language and coach the actors on Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Okrand's basis for the Klingon language came from the few samples spoken in Star Trek: The Motion Picture which were made up by James Doohan. He is also famous as the author of The Klingon Dictionary and all its addenda. He also provided Klingon language voiceovers for the video game Star Trek: Klingon.

Okrand was asked to create spoken Klingon for Star Trek III during the script stage. This was a result of his work on Star Trek II, where he created Vulcan language for scenes already shot in English for Spock and Saavik during their brief discussion about Kirk in the torpedo bay. During post-production, he observed the actors' lip movements as they spoke their lines with the sound off. From these movements, he developed new vocal sounds for the actors (Leonard Nimoy and Kirstie Alley) to dub over their original English. For Klingon, he wrote the sounds in advance, and the majority of the spoken Klingon in Star Trek III was filmed with the actors speaking Klingon. ("Speaking Klingon") Okrand was also interviewed on 21 August 1991 for the TNG Season 5 DVD special feature "Alien Speak" ("The Klingon Linguist").

Okrand previously worked with Native American languages, from which he borrowed the unusual Klingon tlh [IPA: /t͡ɬ/] sound (common in North and Central American indigenous languages, in which it is usually transcribed as tl; this is the sound at the end of the word "Nahuatl" as the Aztecs pronounced it themselves).

Recent work includes the Atlantean language which he was hired to do for Disney's film Atlantis: The Lost Empire, which featured the voice of Leonard Nimoy. He also contributed Klingon and Vulcan dialogue for several episodes of the fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise. He was a consultant for the Klingon, Romulan and Vulcan languages on 2009's Star Trek and served as an uncredited consultant on Star Trek Into Darkness. [1] [2]

Okrand also created the Kelpien language introduced in the Star Trek: Short Treks episode "The Brightest Star" [3] as well as Vulcan spoken between Spock and Burnham in Discovery season 2. (citation needededit) Okrand was credited as a dialect coach and translator for DIS: "That Hope Is You, Part 1", which introduced the Betelgeusian and Kwejian languages, as well as "The Sanctuary" which featured the Kweijan language.

Star Trek credits

Star Trek books

External link
