How Marc Okrand Built Klingon
In 1982, Marc Okrand was working on closed captioning for the Academy Awards broadcast. By chance, he met people involved in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which needed some Vulcan dialogue re-recorded. That small job led to one of the most influential creative projects in pop culture: the Klingon language.
Here's how a linguist turned a few alien grunts into a real language.
The Counterintuitive Truth: Klingon Grew From Mistakes
Klingon wasn't planned as a grand linguistic project. It grew from fixes, constraints, and even actors' mistakes.
When actors mispronounced lines on set, Okrand didn't always correct them. Sometimes he incorporated the changes into the language as dialect variation or irregularities. We call this accidental canon: features of a language that exist because of real-world errors, just like quirks in natural languages.
Who Is Marc Okrand?
- Education: PhD in linguistics from the University of California, Berkeley
- Dissertation: on Mutsun, an Indigenous language of California
- Career: worked for the National Captioning Institute on live closed captioning
- Star Trek work: Vulcan dialogue (Star Trek II), Klingon (Star Trek III onward)
His background in Native American languages gave him a deep knowledge of grammatical features rarely found in European languages — perfect for building something alien.
Step 1: Starting With What Existed (1979)
Klingons had already spoken a few lines in Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). Actor James Doohan (Scotty) had helped create those sounds.
Okrand treated those lines as data. He analysed them and built a sound system that fit — backwards compatibility for a fictional language.
Step 2: Designing the Sounds (1984)
For Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Okrand needed a full language. He chose sounds that:
- Exist in human languages (so actors can pronounce them)
- Rarely appear together in one language (so it sounds alien)
Examples include tlh, Q, gh, and frequent glottal stops. He also used capitalisation in spelling to distinguish sounds like q and Q.
Step 3: Choosing Rare Grammar
Okrand gave Klingon features that feel strange to most humans:
- Object–verb–subject word order, one of the rarest orders in human languages
- Verb prefixes that show both subject and object
- Many verb suffixes expressing meaning like ability, desire, and certainty
- No verb "to be"
We call this deliberate rarity: selecting uncommon features on purpose so no human speaker feels at home.
Step 4: Building Culture Into Words
Klingon culture was forming on screen, so Okrand's vocabulary reflected it:
- nuqneH ("What do you want?") as a greeting
- batlh (honour)
- Qapla' (success)
He later expanded cultural depth in books like The Klingon Way (1996), a collection of Klingon proverbs and sayings.
Step 5: The Dictionary (1985)
The Klingon Dictionary was published in 1985 and expanded in 1992. It gave fans a grammar and vocabulary to learn from — the moment Klingon became something people could study rather than just hear.
Okrand also released Conversational Klingon (1992, audio) and Klingon for the Galactic Traveler (1997).
A Few of Okrand's Jokes
Okrand hid puns and in-jokes in Klingon vocabulary. For instance, several words are playful nods to English phrases or to people involved in the production. Fans enjoy spotting them — a reminder that the language was built with humour as well as rigour.
Step 6: Handing It to the Fans
After the dictionary, the community took over:
- 1992: Klingon Language Institute founded by Dr. Lawrence Schoen
- 1996: The Klingon Hamlet published by the KLI
- 2010: Klingon opera 'u' premiered
- 2018: Duolingo launched a Klingon course
Okrand has continued to attend Klingon events and occasionally reveal new vocabulary — keeping canon alive.
Okrand vs Other Language Creators
| Creator | Language | Approach |
|---|---|---|
| Marc Okrand | Klingon | Alien by design, built from film fragments |
| J.R.R. Tolkien | Quenya, Sindarin | Languages first, decades of personal development |
| David J. Peterson | Dothraki, Valyrian | Culture-first, simulated history |
| Paul Frommer | Na'vi | Exotic but learnable, strong fan collaboration |
Try their languages: Klingon, Quenya, Dothraki, Na'vi.
His Other Star Trek Language Work
Okrand also contributed to other Star Trek languages, including Vulcan dialogue. Explore Star Trek's other tongues:
Why Okrand's Klingon Succeeded
- Rigour. A linguist's consistency.
- Publication. A dictionary fans could hold.
- Culture. Klingons were compelling characters.
- Openness. Okrand engaged with fans.
- Longevity. Star Trek kept making Klingon content.
Where Okrand's Legacy Is Heading
Klingon set the template for modern professional conlanging. We predict that when historians of pop culture look back, Okrand's 1985 dictionary will be seen as the moment fictional languages became a serious creative medium — the Klingon equivalent of the first printed novel.