Marc Okrand: How One Linguist Created the Klingon Language

Marc Okrand: How One Linguist Created the Klingon Language

The story of how a linguist with a specialty in Native American languages created the most studied fictional language in the world is both improbable and fascinating. Marc Okrand didn't set out to build a pop culture institution — he was hired to solve a practical problem on a film set, and the result changed language learning forever.

The Assignment

In 1984, Paramount Pictures was producing Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. Director Leonard Nimoy wanted Klingons who felt genuinely alien — warriors with their own real language, not actors making up sounds on the spot. Marc Okrand had already worked on Vulcan dialogue for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, solving a tricky continuity problem when Vulcan lines needed to be filmed after the original take.

Paramount called him back for a bigger job: create an entire Klingon language from scratch, building on a handful of sounds that had already been recorded for The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan. Okrand had to work backward from completed audio that couldn't be re-recorded.

The Design Philosophy: Make It Alien

Okrand's genius was in using his linguistic training not to make Klingon easier, but to make it systematically different from human language. He surveyed typologically common features across the world's languages and then deliberately chose the opposite.

• Most languages use SVO or SOV word order. Okrand chose OVS — Object-Verb-Subject — one of the rarest orders attested in natural languages.
• Most languages that use SOV have postpositions. Okrand gave Klingon a mix.
• Klingon has sounds that don't co-occur in most human languages.

The result is a language that feels alien but is internally consistent — it obeys rules, just unusual ones.

The Klingon Dictionary (1985)

One year after Star Trek III, Okrand published The Klingon Dictionary through Pocket Books. It was intended as a curiosity for fans, a tie-in product. Instead, it became a reference text for thousands of learners, spawned a community, and is still in print today.

The dictionary includes a complete grammar section explaining the OVS word order, verb prefix system, and suffix types — not just a vocabulary list. This academic rigor is what gave the language staying power: learners could actually learn it, not just memorize phrases.

Expanding the Language Over Time

Okrand has continued to expand Klingon vocabulary and grammar through supplementary works:

• Klingon for the Galactic Traveler (1997) added vocabulary for culture, food, and casual speech
• The Klingon Way (1996) collected Klingon proverbs with commentary
• New vocabulary has been introduced through the Klingon Language Institute's HolQeD journal and in Star Trek productions

He has maintained the language's internal consistency carefully — new words must fit the phonological and grammatical system already established.

The Linguistic Craftsmanship

What sets Klingon apart from other fictional languages is Okrand's commitment to linguistic reality. Klingon isn't a cipher of English with different sounds — it has genuine structural differences that require rethinking how you communicate. The verb suffix system, for example, is reminiscent of agglutinative natural languages like Turkish or Swahili, not anything European.

Okrand has spoken in interviews about deliberately making Klingon learnable. The system, while alien, has clear rules that a student can internalize. This balance between alienness and systematicity is the hallmark of skilled conlang design.

Legacy

Marc Okrand's work on Klingon inspired a generation of conlang creators — including David J. Peterson, who studied Okrand's methods and went on to create Dothraki and Valyrian for Game of Thrones. Peterson has cited Okrand as a direct influence.

Okrand demonstrated that a constructed language for a fictional franchise could be taken seriously as linguistics. His work made it possible for platforms like learningelvish.com to offer structured learning in Klingon alongside Elvish and Dothraki — because Okrand proved that these languages are worth learning properly.

Related Reading

• How to Learn Klingon: The Complete 2026 Guide for Beginners
• The Best App to Learn Klingon (And Why I Switched From Duolingo)
• Dothraki vs Klingon: Two Warriors' Languages Compared

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