Marc Okrand

Marc Okrand makes new ways to talk. He is a man who studies words. He studied old ways of talking from lands near the sea. He also helped make words for movies. He made the Klingon language for Star Trek. This helps actors speak in films. He even made words for a movie called Atlantis. He also helped people who cannot hear. He worked on a way to show words on TV. He can even speak the Klingon words he made. It is a very busy job.

Marc Okrand is a linguist. A linguist is a person who studies language. He studied Native American languages for his work. He wrote a paper on Mutsun. Mutsun is an old language from California. He also worked to help people who cannot hear. He helped make a way to show words on TV. This is called closed captioning.

Okrand is very famous for making movie languages. He first worked on the Vulcan language. This was for the movie Star Trek II. Later, he made the Klingon language. He helped actors speak it in many films. He even wrote three books about Klingon. One is called The Klingon Dictionary. He also made words for the movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He even helped make the Kelpien language for a show called Star Trek: Discovery. People even used Klingon for an opera. An opera is a type of musical play. Okrand can speak Klingon himself. He has done much work with words.

Marc Okrand is a linguist who builds worlds with words. A linguist is a person who studies how languages work. He uses his skills to help people in many ways. He worked with Native American languages for his career. He also helped people who cannot hear well. He worked on the first closed-captioning system for television. This system puts words on the screen for viewers.

Okrand follows many steps to create a new language. He first works with the sounds and rules of speech. He then builds a way for people to speak it. He also writes books to teach these new words. He wrote The Klingon Dictionary in 1985. He also wrote The Klingon Way in 1996. He even made audio courses for students. These courses help people learn to speak the new tongues.

His journey with language began at many universities. He earned a degree from University of California, Santa Cruz in 1970. Later, he studied at University of California, Berkeley. In 1977, he wrote a paper on Mutsun. Mutsun is an old Ohlone language from California. A famous linguist named Mary Haas helped him. He also taught classes at University of California, Santa Barbara.

Okrand is very famous for his work in movies. He met a producer while working on the Oscars in 1982. He first helped with the Vulcan language in Star Trek II. Then, Paramount Pictures hired him to make Klingon. He helped actors speak Klingon in many films. He worked on Star Trek III, V, and VI. In 2001, he made the Atlantean language for Disney. He also made the Kelpien language for Star Trek: Discovery.

Language can be used for many kinds of art. Okrand helped create a Klingon opera in 2010. This musical play debuted at The Hague. He also worked with the Washington Shakespeare Company. They planned a special night of Shakespeare in Klingon. This shows how movie languages can become real art. Okrand can speak Klingon himself today. He has spent his life exploring the power of speech.

Marc Okrand is an American linguist who specializes in the structure of human speech. A linguist is a professional who studies how languages function. Okrand has applied this scientific study to two very different areas. He has worked extensively with Native American languages. He is also famous for creating constructed languages for science fiction. These are languages designed specifically for fictional worlds. His work helps make imaginary cultures feel real and believable through speech.

Okrand's academic career began with a focus on real-world linguistic history. He earned a bachelor's degree in linguistics from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1970. Later, he attended the University of California, Berkeley for doctoral studies. In 1977, he completed his doctoral dissertation on the grammar of Mutsun. Mutsun is an extinct Ohlone language. It was once spoken in the coastal areas of north-central California. His research was supervised by the pioneering linguist Mary Haas.

Before his fame in film, Okrand worked on practical communication tools. From 1975 to 1978, he taught undergraduate linguistics courses at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 1978, he held a post-doctoral fellowship at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. He later joined the National Captioning Institute. There, he worked on the first closed-captioning system. This technology provides text on the screen for hearing-impaired television viewers. He served as a director for Live Captioning at the institute until 2013.

Okrand's transition to science fiction happened by chance in 1982. While he was coordinating closed captioning for the Oscars, he met a film producer. This producer was working on the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Okrand's first task was dubbing dialogue in the Vulcan language. The actors had already filmed their scenes speaking English. Paramount Pictures soon hired him to develop the Klingon language. He coached actors for Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

To help fans learn these new tongues, Okrand became a prolific author. He wrote The Klingon Dictionary, which was first published in 1985. He released a revised and enlarged edition in 1992. He also wrote The Klingon Way in 1996 and Klingon for the Galactic Traveler in 1997. Beyond books, he created audio courses like Conversational Klingon in 1992 and Power Klingon in 1993. These resources allow people to practice the sounds and rules of the constructed languages.

Okrand has expanded his creative reach to other studios and media. In 2001, he created the Atlantean language for the Disney film Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He also served as an early facial model for the protagonist's character design. In 2018, he developed the language for the Kelpien race. This appeared in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery. He also worked on the post-production of Star Trek Into Darkness. He even created dialogue for the 2009 Star Trek film, though those lines were cut from the final version.

Today, the languages Okrand built are used in high art and theater. He co-authored the libretto for a Klingon opera. A libretto is the text used in an opera. This work debuted at The Hague in September 2010. He also served as President of the board for WSC Avant Bard in Virginia. This organization planned an evening of Shakespeare in Klingon in 2010. These projects show how a linguist's work can connect science fiction to classical literature.