The real-life genius who helped create the Klingon language

It takes a lot of work to create a believable sci-fi or fantasy world, and this often involves developing constructed languages, or “conlangs,” that work well enough for the actors to speak and for the audience to believe them. Author of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings.” J. R. R. Tolkien was famous for inventing several languages ​​for his books that were expanded upon in films and televisionWhich gives Middle Earth an extra layer of realism despite it being a fantasy world. In recent years, linguist David J. Peterson is a creator of linguistics, having created everything from Dothraki and High Valyrian languages From “Game of Thrones” and “House of the Dragon.” Development of the Fremen language For Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films, but some other incredible creators helped pave the way decades ago.

In an interview with Star Trek.comlinguist Mark 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 on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and ended up… The Klingons throughout “Star Trek” changed foreverOkrand planted the seeds of their culture with thoughtful, if seemingly terrifying, language.

Okrand explained that the Klingon language was first spoken in “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and that he used that handful of lines as the basis for what would eventually become the Klingon language. (According to Okrand, the lines in The Motion Picture were created by actor James Doohan, who played Scotty, making him the original creator of the Klingon voice.) Okrand used “sounds and clips” from that first film to create a “skeleton” of the language, which he then fleshed out Using a set of basic rules. It had to have all the voices from “The Motion Picture”, be a non-English voice, be guttural, because that’s what was in the script, and be learnable by the English actors. He started with what they needed in Searching for Spock and later added more, even publishing a complete Klingon dictionary. At this point, Okrand has created enough Klingon to actually master it, and there are others who can speak the language as if it were Spanish or German.

Although Klingons have previously appeared in “Star Trek” as villains, “The Search for Spock” was one of the first times they got extended screen time. The Klingon captain, Krug, was, too He is played by Christopher Lloyd of “Back to the Future” fame., barely He was unrecognizable in his makeup, and it was up to him to get the pronunciation of the new and improved Klingon correct. So, how did he do? According to Okrand, he succeeded.

Despite his best efforts to make Klingon easy to speak for the actors, it’s a fairly complex language to pronounce (especially based on how you spell it), but Okrand said that Christopher Lloyd, who played Klingon Captain Krug, was a natural:

“He was a great student. He wasn’t just interested in getting the pronunciation right, he wanted to know what words meant and how sentences fit together. We worked together almost every day they were filming a scene with spoken Klingon. Most of the other Klingon speakers in the film were from Krug’s crew, And they each had one line where they were screaming ’cause things are going wrong, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a group of people more excited about what they should be gibberish on.”

Okrand also said that William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk and had to say “hair me” in Klingon, also remembered the pronunciation lessons. These days, people are more likely to remember the main Klingon homage (Qapla’!) or its very offensive word for weirdness/anything Klingons don’t like, “petaQ”, Okrands’ creations that had some real staying power in the fandom. . While the Klingon language isn’t as flexible as something like the Navi in ​​the “Avatar” movies, which… It gave the actors the opportunity for a lot of improvisationIt gave “Star Trek” a whole new flavor and helped turn people into die-hard Klingon fans. (This is me. I’m a Klingon fan.) What’s wrong, Mr. Okrand. They killed him.