Editing Marc Okrand

{{Short description|American linguist}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2020}}
{{Infobox academic
| honorific_prefix = <!-- see [[MOS:HONOURIFIC]] -->
| name = Marc Okrand
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| image = Marc Okrand Saarbruecken 2019.JPG
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| caption = Okrand in 2019
| native_name = 
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| birth_name = <!-- use only if different from full/othernames -->
| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1948|07|03}}
| birth_place = [[Los Angeles]], California, U.S.
| death_date = <!-- {{death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} (death date then birth date) -->
| death_place = 
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| occupation = [[Linguistics|Linguist]]
| period = 
| known_for = Creating [[Klingon language|Klingon]] and [[Atlantean language|Atlantean]]
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| boards = <!--board or similar positions extraneous to main occupation-->
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| education = {{ubl|[[University of California, Santa Cruz]] ([[B. A.|BA]])|[[University of California, Berkeley]] ([[PhD]])}}
| alma_mater = <!--will often consist of the linked name of the last-attended higher education institution-->
| thesis_title = Mutsun Grammar
| thesis_url = https://berkeley.app.box.com/v/okrand-1977
| thesis_year = 1977
| school_tradition = 
| doctoral_advisor = [[Mary Haas]]
| academic_advisors = [[William F. Shipley]]
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'''Marc Okrand''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|oʊ|k|ɹ|æ|n|d}}; born July 3, 1948) is an American [[linguist]]. His professional work is in [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] languages, and he is well known as the creator of the [[Klingon language]] in the ''[[Star Trek]]'' science fiction franchise.

==Career==
As a linguist, Okrand worked with [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|Native American languages]]. He earned a bachelor's degree in linguistics from the [[University of California, Santa Cruz]] in 1970.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Garcia |first=Mary Elizabeth |date=January 13, 2017 |title=From Klingon to Dothraki: Understanding invented languages |url=https://news.ucsc.edu/2017/01/invented-languages-class-feature-story.html |access-date=September 22, 2023 |website=UC Santa Cruz}}</ref> His 1977 doctoral dissertation from the [[University of California, Berkeley]], was on the grammar of [[Mutsun]], an extinct [[Ohlone languages|Ohlone]] language formerly spoken in the coastal areas of north-central California. His dissertation was supervised by pioneering linguist [[Mary Haas]]. From 1975 to 1978, he taught undergraduate [[linguistics]] courses at the [[University of California, Santa Barbara]], before taking a [[Postdoctoral research|post-doctoral]] fellowship at the [[Smithsonian]] in [[Washington, D.C.]], in 1978.<ref name="WSJ">''[[Wall Street Journal]]'' [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124224759995316587 Helping the Hearing Impaired And Voicing the Klingons], May 14, 2009</ref> 

After that, Okrand took a job at the [[National Captioning Institute]], where he worked on the first closed-captioning system for hearing-impaired television viewers. Until his retirement in 2013, Okrand served as one of the directors for Live Captioning at the National Captioning Institute and as President of the board of directors of ''[[WSC Avant Bard]]'' (formerly the Washington Shakespeare Company) in [[Arlington County, Virginia]], which planned to stage "an evening of Shakespeare in Klingon" in 2010.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/27/AR2010082702649.html Washington Post: How the Washington Shakespeare Company came to offer Shakespeare in Klingon]</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.washingtonshakespeare.org/klingon.pdf |title=WSC press release |access-date=2010-08-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150301204739/http://washingtonshakespeare.org/klingon.pdf |archive-date=2015-03-01 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===''Star Trek''===
While coordinating closed captioning for the [[Academy Awards|Oscars]] award show in 1982, Okrand met the producer for the movie ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]]''.<ref name="WSJ" /> His first work was dubbing in [[Vulcan (Star Trek)|Vulcan]] language dialogue for ''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'', since the actors had already been filmed talking in English. He was then hired by [[Paramount Pictures]] to develop the Klingon language and coach the actors using it in ''[[Star Trek III: The Search for Spock]]'', ''[[Star Trek V: The Final Frontier]]'', and ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country]]''. Okrand was later hired to create the [[Romulan]] and Vulcan dialogue for the 2009 ''[[Star Trek (2009 film)|Star Trek]]'' film, but these lines were cut from the final release.<ref name="qepHom">{{cite web |last=Litaer |first=Lieven |date=October 10, 2013 |title=Marc Okrand about Into Darkness |url=http://www.qephom.de/e/okrand_about_into_darkness.html |access-date=September 22, 2023 |website=qepHom.de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Serjeant |first=Jill |date=November 2, 2012 |title=Klingon goes boldly beyond 'Star Trek' into pop culture |work=[[Reuters]] |url=https://jp.reuters.com/article/books-klingon-idINDEE8A106G20121102 |access-date=September 22, 2023}}</ref><ref name="YouTube">{{YouTube|UZmSLc5iTXE|Okrand Answers "What was your involvement in the new Star Trek movie"}}</ref> He was also involved in ''[[Star Trek Into Darkness]]'', but only during post-production.<ref name="qepHom" />

Okrand is the author of three books about Klingon – ''[[The Klingon Dictionary]]'' (first published 1985, revised enlarged edition 1992), ''[[The Klingon Way]]'' (1996), and ''[[Klingon for the Galactic Traveler]]'' (1997) – as well as two audio courses: ''[[Conversational Klingon]]'' (1992) and ''[[Power Klingon]]'' (1993). He has also co-authored the libretto of an opera in the Klingon language: ''{{mono|[['u' (opera)|’u’]]}}''{{efn| The title ''’u’'' has three letters-- '''’''' '''u''' '''’''' -- , not one letter between single quotation marks. The apostrophe is a letter in the canonical transcription of [[Klingon language #Writing systems|Klingon orthography]], denoting a [[glottal stop]].}}, debuting at [[The Hague]] in September 2010. He speaks Klingon, but notes that others have attained greater fluency.<ref name="Rogers" >{{cite news|title=ghom <!-- see [[Talk:Marc Okrand#ghom|Talk]] --> tlhIngan Hol lujatlhbogh ghotpu’: Translation: People who speak Klingon meet |last=Rogers |first=Tony| date=7 March 2011| journal= Arbiter Online: Boise State's Independent Student Media| url= http://arbiteronline.com/2011/03/07/linguists-in-hollywood-brings-pizazz-to-boise-state/| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110310192613/http://arbiteronline.com/2011/03/07/linguists-in-hollywood-brings-pizazz-to-boise-state| url-status= dead| archive-date= March 10, 2011}}</ref>

In 2018 he developed the language for the Kelpien race in the second season of ''[[Star Trek: Discovery]]'' (first appearing in the third [[Star Trek: Short Treks|''Short Treks'']] episode ''"''The Brightest Star''"'').<ref>[https://twitter.com/extspace/status/1082358448916844544 ''Bo Yeon Kim''] Message on Twitter of 7 January 2019.</ref><ref>''Kelpien Language Consultant: Marc Okrand'' in the end credits of the episode "The Brightest Star"</ref>

===''Atlantis: The Lost Empire''===
In 2001, Okrand created the [[Atlantean language]] for the [[The Walt Disney Company|Disney]] film ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]].'' He was also used as an early facial model for the protagonist's character design.

==Personal Life==

Okrand is Jewish.<ref>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy87xpsakDE</ref>

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|645704}}
* [https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124224759995316587 Interview with Marc Okrand] in the ''[[Wall Street Journal]]''

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Okrand, Marc}}
[[Category:1948 births]]
[[Category:American opera librettists]]
[[Category:Constructed language creators]]
[[Category:Creators of writing systems]]
[[Category:Linguists from the United States]]
[[Category:Linguists of Klingon]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People from Los Angeles]]
[[Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni]]
[[Category:University of California, Santa Cruz alumni]]