The real-life genius who helped create the Klingon language

A lot of work goes into creating a believable science fiction or fantasy universe, and that often includes developing constructed languages, or “conlangs,” that work well enough for actors to speak and audiences to believe. The author of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings,” JRR Tolkien, invented several languages ​​for his books that have been expanded upon for film and television adaptations, giving Middle-earth an extra layer of realism to despite being such a fantastic world. In recent years, linguist David J. Peterson has become a go-to conlang builder, creating everything from the Dothraki and High Valyrian languages ​​of “Game of Thrones” and “The House of the Dragon” to the development of a Fremen language for “Dune” by Denis Villeneuve. “, but some other amazing conlang creators helped pave the way decades before.

In an interview with StarTrek.comLinguist Marc Okrand shared the secrets of creating the Klingon language for the “Star Trek” franchise, specifically for “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.” Just a few years before Michael Dorn first played Worf in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and ended up changing the Klingons throughout “Star Trek” forever, Okrand planted the seeds of his culture with an idea Well thought out, although terrifying. language.

Okrand explained that Klingon was first spoken in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and that he used those handful of lines as the basis for what would eventually become the Klingon language. (According to Okrand, the lines from “The Motion Picture” were created by actor James Doohan, who played Scotty, making him the original creator of the Klingon sound.) Okrand used the “sounds and syllables” from that first film to create a “skeleton” of the language, then developed it using a set of basic rules. It had to contain all the sounds of “The Motion Picture”, sound in another language, be guttural, since that’s what was in the script, and so that the English actors could learn it. It started with what they needed for “The Search for Spock” and then added more, even publishing an entire Klingon dictionary. At this point, Okrand has created enough of the Klingon language to speak fluently, and there are others who can speak the language as if it were, say, Spanish or German.

Although the Klingons had previously appeared on “Star Trek” as villains, “The Search for Spock” was one of the first times they got more screen time. The Klingon captain, Kruge, was played by Christopher Lloyd from the famous movie “Back to the Future.” almost unrecognizable in its composition, and it was up to him to get the pronunciation of the new and improved Klingon correct. So how did it go? According to Okrand, he succeeded.

Despite going to great lengths to make Klingon easy for actors to speak, it’s a pretty tricky language to pronounce (especially based on how it’s written), but Okrand said Christopher Lloyd, who played Klingon Captain Kruge, was a natural. :

“He was a great student. Not only was he interested in getting the pronunciation right, but he also wanted to know what words meant and how sentences fit together. We worked together almost every day while filming a scene with spoken Klingon. Most others Klingon speakers in the movie were Kruge’s team. For the most part, they each had a line they shouted because things were going wrong. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of people more excited than they must have been. gibberish.”

Okrand also said that William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk and had to say “transmit me” in Klingon, also remembered his pronunciation lessons. Nowadays, people are more likely to remember the main Klingon greeting (Qapla’!) or their very derogatory word for oddities or anything Klingons don’t like, “petaQ”, creations of Okrands who have had real staying power in the fandom. . While Klingon isn’t as flexible as something like Navi from the “Avatar” movies, which allowed the actors the opportunity to improvise a lot, it gave “Star Trek” a whole new flavor and helped convert people into die-hard Klingon fans. . (It’s me. I’m a Klingon fan.) majQa’, Mr. Okrand. qatlo’.