Marc Okrand facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Marc Okrand
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Okrand in 2019
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| Born | July 3, 1948 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
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| Occupation | Linguist |
| Known for | Creating Klingon and Atlantean |
| Scientific career | |
| Thesis | Mutsun Grammar (1977) |
| Doctoral advisor | Mary Haas |
| Other academic advisors | William F. Shipley |
Marc Okrand (born July 3, 1948) is an American linguist. A linguist is a person who studies languages. Marc Okrand is most famous for creating the Klingon language for the Star Trek movies and TV shows. He also created the Atlantean language for a Disney movie.
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Marc Okrand's Career
Marc Okrand's main work as a linguist was studying Native American languages. He earned his first degree in linguistics in 1970. Later, in 1977, he got his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. His PhD paper was about the grammar of Mutsun. This was an old language spoken by the Ohlone people in California.
After his studies, Okrand worked at the National Captioning Institute. Here, he helped create the first closed-captioning system. This system helps people who are deaf or hard of hearing watch TV. He worked there until he retired in 2013.
Creating Languages for Star Trek
Marc Okrand's journey into Star Trek began in 1982. He was working on closed captioning for the Oscars. There, he met a producer for the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
His first job for Star Trek was to add Vulcan language dialogue to Star Trek II. The actors had already filmed their scenes in English. Then, he was hired by Paramount Pictures to create a full language for the Klingons. He also taught the actors how to speak it. This was for movies like Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Okrand also wrote several books about the Klingon language. These include The Klingon Dictionary and The Klingon Way. He also created audio courses to help people learn Klingon. In 2010, he even helped write an opera in Klingon called ’u’. He can speak Klingon, but he says others are even better at it!
In 2018, he developed another language for Star Trek: Discovery. This language was for the Kelpien race.
The Atlantean Language
In 2001, Marc Okrand created another unique language. This was the Atlantean language for the Disney movie Atlantis: The Lost Empire. He even helped with the design of the main character's face in the movie.
Images for kids
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A robot, symbolizing technology and language creation.
