Marc Okrand

Marc Okrand is the inventor of the Klingon language. He initially created the Vulcan dialogue in . He was hired by Paramount Pictures to invent the language and coach the actors on , , and . Okrand's basis for the Klingon language came from the few samples spoken in 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 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 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 . He was a consultant for the Klingon, Romulan and Vulcan languages on 's and served as an uncredited consultant on . 
Okrand also created the Kelpien language introduced in the episode as well as Vulcan spoken between Spock and Burnham in Discovery season 2. Okrand was credited as a dialect coach and translator for , which introduced the Betelgeusian and Kwejian languages, as well as which featured the Kweijan language.
== Star Trek credits ==
* :
** (Translator: Vulcan)
** (Creator: Alien language)
** (Consultant: Klingon dialogue)
** (Specialist: Klingon language)
** (Romulan and Vulcan language consultant) 
** (Language consultant, uncredited)
** (Consultant)
* (Kelpien language consultant)
* 
** (Dialect coach and translator)
** (Dialect coach and translator)
** (Kwejian language consultant)
** (Kwejian language consultant)
== Star Trek books ==
* Conversational Klingon
* The Klingon Dictionary
* Klingon for the Galactic Traveler
* The Klingon Way
* Power Klingon
== External link ==
* 
* 
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Category:Linguists
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Category:Star Trek literature authors
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Category:Star Trek audio authors
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