I

didn't know what a little.

Honor.

This is of all questions and
answers today.

So it's up to you what we do next.

I'm perfectly happy to ramble on and
on about anything but.

This is a post me questions and
answers with we can we can do that

right.

OK.

Well when I say I didn't base it on
anything that's not entirely true.

But I did not base it on any
known language except for itself.

The existence of cling on as a language.

Started in the original T.V. series.

You know that
the Captain Kirk Mr Spock T.V. series.

But we never heard the language
we knew there was a language.

Because in one of the episodes which is
called Trouble with Tribbles if anyone

knows any of this stuff.

There's a bar room brawl.

And before the barroom brawl breaks out
the playing on the Federation people

are kind of mad at each other and

one of the cling on to something
is not a direct quote.

But as he says some of the fact of
the claims are becoming so popular.

That's why half of the quadrant is
learning how to speak Klingon ease.

He says.

But we don't hear it.

We don't know what it sounds like but

we do know there is such a thing as
a going on line was the only thing we know

about is people's names the names
of the characters that's it.

In the first Star Trek movie which is
one thousand nine hundred nine is when

we first hear Klingon and at the very very
beginning of the movie there is three

cling on ships that go by and
one by one they get zapped and

they're not in the movie anymore
because for that happens we see inside

the main ship there's the commander
Captain whatever he is and he speaks he's

working out commands in some weird
new language with English subtitles.

And that's the origins of cling on so

that's where I began because I began
with calling on in the third film.

But in order to do it.

I had to go back to the first film and

say OK here's some real sentences here
some real words here some real sounds.

And I had to make whatever
I did match those so what.

I did is basically make a inventory
of the sounds from the first movie.

And what are those
are sounds there were very

many because there was only
like sixty short little lines.

So I had to add more sounds to that and
adding the more sounds I had three or

four things in mind one was it
had to match the first movie.

One was it had to be guttural and
the reason it had to be gutturals because

the script said so it wasn't my idea but
the script said that the main character.

The main villain in Star Trek
there was this guy named Kruger.

And it's in the script group
says in his guttural cling on

Therefore it had to be guttural.

It had to not sound like
anything anybody could recognize.

So the collection of sounds I
put in there's no sounds and

cling on that you can find in some
earth language somewhere or other but

the collection of sounds is unique.

Although some shouldn't be
in the same language for

all kinds of reasons which we can talk
about of someone wants to do that.

And the fourth one was

it had to be relatively easy
to learn by Hollywood actors.

So most of the sounds in climate
are normal ordinary everyday English

sounds because most of the actors were
normal ordinary everyday English speakers.

So that's that's where
the sounds came from.

The basic syllable structure
came from the first

movie because the way it was
set up in the first movie

was these simple syllables of constant
constant was basically that not quite.

So that's where that comes from I
should point out that the guy who

made up the language for

the first movie was it was James Doohan
the actor who played Scotty he made it up.

He doesn't get any screen credit for
it but he did it.

He's been mad at me ever since.

For it because I get the credit
somehow and he doesn't.

For the grammar of the language and

I had to do that for the in the first
movie there's no I don't know what

the grammar is there's just you know
a sentence of three or four syllables.

And a subtitle so I had to say All right

here's a three syllable phrase is
that one word or two words or three.

It's two because I don't know why
because you have to make a decision.

And the first two syllables is one word
and the third syllable is another word or

maybe the other way around.

Anyway just had to arbitrarily make
a decision about that and then just stick.

Whatever I decided and
it would grow for the basic word order

of the language if you come here and that
you hear all this stuff all over again.

For the basic we're going to language I
had to decide what that's going to be

because words don't fall
randomly in a sentence they.

I mean the good grammar might let you
move them around all over the place but

you've got to say them in some order or
other.

So that sort of the three basic things
a lot of languages have is a subject they

object in the verb.

OK dogs bite people.

The dogs as a subject verb the bite
is the verb people is the object

the word the action the receiver
the action what the action is.

And those three elements can
come in different languages and

all kinds of possible orders in English
it happens to be the order I just

said the subject first and
the verb in the object dogs bite people.

But it doesn't have to be that way other
languages put the verb at the end and

so on and of these three elements
there are and this is Georgia Tech.

So you can figure this out fast.

It's three factorial right so there are
six possible permutations of this thing.

And if you look around the world's
languages you will find languages

representing all six possible
permutations of those things.

However.

Some of them are a whole lot
more common than the others.

So the English word order subject and
verb an object is one of the most common.

Languages where the verb comes at
the end of the sentence in the subject

object before that are pretty common
languages where the obvious comes

first in the sentence are very
uncommon not unheard of but uncommon.

And since it's that
they're the most uncommon.

That's most uncommon order
that's the order I chose for

calling on not because and it's so clear
is object in the verb and subject which is

backwards from English but I didn't choose
it because it's backwards from English.

I chose it because one
of the least common.

Word orders in the world and therefore not
to insult speakers of those languages.

One of the least human.

So that's where that's where it came from
so and in putting the language together

I basically made a little structure and
just kept track of what I was doing.

Making it making words up making
grammatical constructs up so

on and so forth.

Made decisions about how
the pronouns work and

all that stuff and then stuck to it
may beis wrote notes and stuck to it.

And you know having said
I just made it all up.

You can't help but be influenced by what
you know so I would realize as I'm going

along that what I'm doing is a little bit
like Navajo which is something I know

something about it's a little bit like
Chinese are a little bit like them as soon

as I realize that I would stop
doing whatever that was and

switch gears entirely into something
else I wouldn't throw out what I did but

I would make sure that whatever I
did next was very very different.

So that it wouldn't be like anything and
I think it worked as we were shooting

the movie people kept coming up to me and
say and saying things that that language

sounds just like and
everyone said something different.

So it was all right.

I got the job to write cling on
because I wrote Vulcan before that.

So your question is how do I
get the job to write Vulcan.

I did the I was in L.A.
for captioning work actually.

In one thousand nine hundred two to
work on work on the Oscars we can talk

about that separately.

And had time on my hands
which I hadn't counted on and

I grew up in Los Angeles so
my family's there and friends were there.

And so on and I since I suddenly had
free time I got on the phone and

start calling my friends and
it was I think it was dialing me anyway.

And one friend said you
know where are you.

Where are you calling me from and
I told her where I was and

she said that's nearby here
want to come by for lunch.

OK well here where she was
was Paramount Studios.

Her boss was Harvey Bennett who's the
executive producer of Star Trek two and

I knew him and I knew her from
the same context from years before and

I knew you know my friends
are making Star Trek that's cool.

And it's fun fact but
that's all that was so

anyway we had we went out to lunch she and
I and another secretary.

To another producer or something and
during a lunch conversation.

The other secretary said.

I understand you have a degree
in linguistics and I said yeah.

And she said that's interesting because
we've been talking to people linguistics

department U.C.L.A. recently.

And I said Why that's a weird thing to do.

Because people don't call up
linguistics departments very much.

And she said well there's a scene
in the movie where Mr Spock.

And this new female Vulcan character that
no one's ever seen before at that time.

Have this little conversation when they
film the scene the actors were speaking in

English but
now that we're in post-production.

Everyone thinks would be better if
they were speaking in Vulcan and

rather than shooting
the scene all over again.

We got the idea that we'd get
this linguist from U.C.L.A.

I have no idea who they were talking to.

To basically make up gobbledygook.

That would match the lip movements and

they were dubbed in like
dubbing a foreign film.

And I said and then they put subtitles
that said whatever they wanted.

And I said that's a really good idea.

You know good for you you hire a linguist
because they know how these things work.

They understand what how sounds are
created in your mouth and what things you

can see on the lips and what things you
can't and so they'll make it match up with

you know good plan and she said what
we thought was a good idea too.

But it turned out to be a headache and now
it's long enough ago that I don't remember

what the headache was it was a boring.

Kind of headache.

And it was the.

Email wasn't invented yet.

Answering machines.

So they were having problems
getting people in the same

place at the same time and
you know is that kind of thing.

It was an artistic differences or
something.

Anyway didn't work out with whoever it was
she said I don't know what we're going

to do we have to have this
taken care of right away so

I said what you mean right away she
said it's got to be done by the end

of this week which is exactly how long
I was in town that I can do that.

And my friend said Yeah you can do that.

He's got the same kind of degrees
as those people at U.C.L.A.

do it that's point the associate
producer happened to walk by and

they said hey we just
saw the Vulcan problem.

Is that what you mean.

So she told he said come
see me after lunch.

Now the fact I knew the executive
producer is not irrelevant to the story.

They were hiring someone it
was his decision to hire me so

I wasn't hiring someone he never
heard of or something like that but

that's not what I went there for
I wanted to have spaghetti or something.

So that's how I got
the job doing Vulcan so

I went in and
watched the little bit of film.

With that little scene and wrote down
what they were saying in English

and also watch the film to see if they
were doing anything with their mouths.

That I could take advantage of even if you
couldn't hear it in English and it turns

out Leonard Nimoy did because in his in
his two sentences whatever it was he said

at the end of his each sentence he closed
his mouth would sound silly to say that

because people tend to do that but he went
blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

I said OK whatever he says in this
jibberish I'm going to make up the last

syllable is going to be OK He didn't say
that in English but his lips did that.

So I went and met shit all up and
then went back the next day to teach

the woman playing the female Vulcan It
was a character character name is either

Saavik or Savak to this day no one
knows how to pronounce her name and

was played by Kirstie Alley was
like her first job in Hollywood.

To teach her and on the way there.

The producer pulled me aside and
he said you know in the first movie.

There's a Vulcan language.

So you better watch that
language listen to it so

that your language kind
of sounds like that.

I said Well now you tell me you know
after I've made it all up already.

But OK.

So I went watched that and tried to see if
there was any sounds in there that I could

incorporate without lossing up what I've
done because it had to match the lips.

And there were fortunately there

were some sounds made out of
the throat mostly kind of things.

So I kind of sprinkled a few of those
into the vault and then went back and

started to teach Kirstie Alley
how to say all this stuff.

And the director of the film
is going to make Meyer.

Overheard us practicing and

he pulled the producer aside he said
I'm not so sure I'm not so sure this.

Language is going to work
the producer said why he says

I don't want this Vulcan language
to sound like you dish and

what he was hearing was a producer
said basically let's try it.

And the director said OK.

So.

Kirsty dubbed in her lines.

OK And then when they played the film
back because Spock wasn't there

anymore I wasn't there that
day when they played it back.

She went first.

She'd say something in Vulcan
he would reply in English.

She'd say something involved and
he would reply in English.

And the director did something that I've
never ever seen anyone do in real life but

he really did this he fell down on the
floor laughing and he said well keep it.

We'll keep it so

I do a couple days later I went back to
the same thing with a letter name like.

He dumped in his lines and
I left to go work

on the Oscars which is why I was there you
know driving down the freeway realizing

that I had just thought Mr Spock how to
speak Vulcan and that was pretty cool.

And I thought I was like I was that was
the end that was the end that was the end

of me and Star Trek.

You know I would go would be
a footnote in some trivia book or

something that would that would be on
a year and a half later the phone rang and

it was hard and
again we're making a new movie.

The villains are to be the cling
on I think they ought to

have their own language.

I mean in Harbin and not me.

You did the Vulcan you
want to do the cling on.

And you know what I've said in
other context sometimes every once

in a while in life.

You're presented with a decision
it's really easy to make and

this was one of those so
I said yes and here I am.

I started in for Kling on started
in one thousand eight hundred four.

It's now two thousand and eleven.

How many years is that because it's
not finished yet for the movie.

All that was created for
the movie Star Trek three.

Where the line is enough language to.

To support the lines that had
to be spoken in Kling on OK and

it said in the script this lines and
cling on this lines and cling.

If it didn't have to be made up in
other words of the if it wasn't

a line in the movie.

I didn't make up whatever that was we
were there that people can be there.

Your grammar stuff.

So how many lines there were in
the movie and claim that and

we also I also made up all the lines
spoken by a cling on in English.

I mean of a Klingon version of that.

So that while we were shooting the film.

If someone said hey he shouldn't
be saying that in English.

He should say that in
Klingon I could say here.

As opposed to way let me go.

Think about that.

OK.
They use the role of those OK but.

That helped flesh out the language
as I was going along so

that there wasn't all that much actually.

So that you know that took a few months
to do that in preparation for the film.

And then I was on the set for
about a month.

While we were doing it.

If you watch them if you watch
that movie Star Trek three

every time someone to speak.

Not every time.
Most of the time someone is speaking

Klingon I'm right outside the frame.

I'm right there.

Not all the time.

When they speak crummy I'm not there.

That's how you can.

So that how long that was and
then I'm done I thought.

And then a couple months later they called
said OK we're in post-production now which

is editing and all that kind of stuff and
they made a few decisions I want to

add a few lines that weren't there
before and things like that.

So there was another couple of months work
and that was that was it for the movie.

But while I was working on the movie.

I got this idea that people
seem really interested in

the language the crew scene because
I'm not the crew of the enterprise but

the crew came with the filmmaking crew.

And they kept asking me questions about
us as it was these guys are interested in

the language probably other
people like Star Trek fans.

Whoever they are might
be interested as well.

So I propose writing a book explaining
how the language works and the power.

Was that the paramount in their parent
company and all that stuff said OK so

I wrote this book.

And that took a while to write the book

because I took all the stuff
that I've done before and

then added that it added because if
I'd had only what was in the movie.

In the book it would've
been really skinny book.

So I had to add more grammar
a lot more vocabulary

to flesh it out and that that took
a while so that was the bulk of it.

So all of that is a year or so.

But it's ongoing.

It's never stopped.

Me.

I'm a very bad speaker of clay and

I will I will admit that
because when I made it up.

I didn't know anyone was going to
speak it other than in the movies.

So so my approach to it
was I'm creating a prop on

the making scenery something that making
something that's going to be incorporated

into the film to make the film
hopefully more interesting and cool and

stuff like that but
that's all I didn't know two years years

later that people not only buy what I mean
when I wrote the book I hope that people

would buy it but I would what would
happen is people look at the book and

kind of from through say
look there's the word for

this Ha ha put on the coffee table and
they look at I've gotten stuff like that.

I don't know people are going to read it
very very seriously and this sect it and

find out all the mistakes in it and
everything else.

And the start carrying on conversations
analyzing the language and

in very very serious way.

So they can speak it.

Some people but
I've never spoken to anybody.

While all this all this was going on.

So my interaction with
the language these days is doing

things like this and
when new projects come along.

I work on other films and oddball
things we just did an opera a Klingon

opera which premiered in September in
The Hague in the Netherlands right.

Really performed there and won one
performance in Germany in the rain but

other than that it was
all done in Holland so

worked on that's what things
come up every once in a while.

But is it.

I don't have lunch every day talking
going on or anything like that.

Now people.

Really.

Well it's two different things.

How many times have I heard
words that I didn't invent and

how many times I heard words that
isn't based on my pronunciation.

They don't necessarily go together.

The words I mean in the I
mean if the language for

Star Trek three which is
eighty four eighty five.

Then a couple years later they made the
Fourth Star Trek movie that doesn't have

a Klingon speaking in it always just
whales and stuff and then in the fifth

movie The cling on is come back to me and
that kind of language comes back.

By the time of the fifth movie Star Trek
The Next Generation that started on T.V.

so they were kind of both in production at
the same time and then the next generation

in Deep Space Nine and Voyager and
Enterprise which you kind of talk about.

You know continued.

At first for the next generation.

All and I did all the stuff
in the movies for the T.V.

show The Next Generation the first time
the cling on showed up where they spoke

when they made up themselves they
didn't know about me or something.

In the first season the second season
they did know about me and use

me a little bit so I made up some language
for a few episodes in next generation.

After that they bought a lot of books
I think a lot of my dictionary and

started using it and some of them
were good dictionary users and

some of them not so good.

So the ones who took the time and
trouble to figure out how it worked there.

Whatever they made up you
know was pretty good.

Others disco years the word for
this here is the word for this.

What if you know how a dictionary works
if you know how language is working with

dictionary does not by itself is not going
to help you speak a language you can pick

up a dictionary a French look up
the words and suddenly speak French.

Because the grammar is different.

Right.

It's not just it's not just a one for
one match but

sometimes in the next generation and
so forth.

Things certain writers did that.

So they would take the words but

kind of get them all mixed up one example
of that is one episode where war.

This kid at the end of the by
that all kinds of stuff happens.

And by the end of the episode.

They're honoring their mothers and
some kind of ancient Vulcan or

other cling on ceremony where
you honor your mothers.

And they're lighting candles and things
because Clinton's are big into that and

says something in cling on and the kid
says What did you say and more said

I said I don't know my mother or mother
I honor you I guess mother I honor you.

And the kid said Say that again I
want to I want to say that too.

So worse as a kid learns it like that
because kids a fantastic language learner.

And what was said was the words for
mother.

I honor you pulled out of
the dictionary in that order.

Ok English word order mother honor you

if you remember what I just said
a little bit ago the object comes first.

That means mother since it comes first
is the object and so what the kid and

we're really saying is I am a mother and
you are on earth something like that.

So that kind of stuff happened but

a lot of that would did they
would just make up words or

they don't they'd mangle words this is
this famous cling on weapon is that thing.

That was that was a combination typo in

this pronunciation of something
they pulled out of the dictionary.

Because what they really
want to say was honor sword.

And the word for honor is bought and
the word for Sword is at.

So they were supposed
to be they wanted at.

But they dropped a few letters somehow and
it came out a lot less which no one knew

how to pronounce but they threw an
apostrophe in there to make it look cool.

And stuff like that so that or
they just might totally make stuff up.

I got a call.

Once when they were making one of the next
generation movies A forget which one but

the production office called me up and
they said is

there a Klingon word for puberty and

I said no and I was expecting the next
thing to be will you make one up.

But what they said was
good I said why good.

Well we made one up and

we wanted to make sure there wasn't
already one and the one they made up.

I don't remember what it was but whatever
it was they made up phonetically worked.

So OK fine but in the same movie.

This is a movie.

Work it's getting younger and
forget what was going on.

In the same movie.

They made up another cling on word for

pimple because it goes with getting
younger cling onto something.

And we're gets one.

On his nose and someone says What's that.

And he says that's gorge will go bad
cling on that can't be a cling on word.

OK so the sounds of those sounds
are wrong and with the word paramount.

Folks sometimes follow
the rules sometimes don't.

Sometimes make stuff up on their own
sometimes try to make it fit in a depends

on the writer on
the particular screenwriter.

The word in cling on for
language is whole the word in Klingon for

calling on is playing on so
cling on language as a whole.

So the people who are really into
the language say there's really two kinds

of languages there's one called playing on
the whole and there's another one called

Paramount hole which is not the same
thing as that is your question.

It's paltry Paul.

Compared to English there's
probably two thousand words.

That's all.
Which is which is not anything that's very

very little.

That hasn't stopped people from doing all
kinds of amazing things with it though.

I mean there's all kinds of translation
projects going on some of which some

of which are completed the more complex
ones probably is translating Shakespeare.

So they've translated ham not me.

Other people have translated it ham
what and much ado about nothing so

far into cling on and
they don't make up any vocabulary.

They only have the vocabulary that I've
created and published someplace or

other but these are very very creatively.

So if there's not a word for something
they say OK there's no word for that.

What is what does it
really mean in English.

What is Shakespeare really saying.

Let's find a way to express that same
thought using the words and grammar and

stuff available to us.

So they did all that and amazingly enough
to maintain the I Am A pentameter I don't

know how they did that but they did.

So they translated that they translated
the Epic of Gilgamesh is available

in cling on someone just translated
the Tao To Jane the DA was texts.

These are translated not from England
not from an English translation but

directly from Chinese into claimed
by a woman in Poland who did this.

So you can do all kinds of stuff with
the both of them is really limited and

every time I meet someone who knows the
language well the most likely thing they

are to say to me is we need a word for
and the list goes on and on and on and

there's lots of lots of cling on speakers
out there who are very mad at me because I

really sluggish about
producing new vocabulary.

What

was the Oscars all about closed
captioning started about.

I guess one thousand nine hundred
nine one thousand nine hundred.

I think they were the technology
began a bit before that I thing.

Was the first time I was on the air was
and is in one thousand nine hundred.

And for the first couple of years.

The only kind of stuff and
I've been doing it.

Bout long.

The only kind of stuff we could do was
prerecorded programs movies sitcoms stuff

like that where we could get
a tape ahead of time and

basically what the procedure was
it sounds very simple minded but

it's more a little more complicated
in this get the tape and

put the tape on machine guys remember
tapes you know I'm talking about.

Play the first line hit pause typing

what you heard go next line
pause typing what you heard.

OK it's more complex than that but
that was basically the procedure but

we couldn't do a live show we could do
the news couldn't do sports because there

was no tape ahead of time.

So we finally figured out a technology
where we could do something live

in the technology was based on court
reporting of court reporters like

the people in the courtroom.

It was funny little machines.

Because what they're doing is typing.

In shorthand.

They're not spelling anything.

The keys on the keyboard correspond
to letters are not strange symbols.

They're regular letters but
it is funny abbreviations.

And the way it works is it is
illegal only when I know I did.

I can't do it.

I want to know how to do
is a word like Institute.

OK on a regular standard
keyboard you know INS to hit

the keyboard nine times because
there's nine letters in the word.

On this thing you can
hit one key to time or

several keys together
like a chord on a piano.

So you can do a whole syllable
together and go in there and

you can skip the to and
go to you know in this toot.

So you hit the keyboard twice
rather than nine times and

that's why they can go fast.

All right.
But

to do it in state those
keys there's no I on

the keyboard because they had to only have
so many keys they don't have a big thing.

So to make that sound you had
the in the UKI at the same time and

there's no in so to make that you had
to pee in the BE AT THE SAME TIME.

So E.U. P.B.'s those keys struck
simultaneously means INS to do.

OK.

And if you talk.

The live Court Reporting way as opposed to
the way I said before because it's cheaper

basically.

And there's a whole new technology that
we've just started to use which is

speech recognition.

Speech recognition technology is not good
enough that you can hold a microphone up

to a T.V. and it works OK So
we're not there yet but

people listen to it and repeat
everything they hear because the speech

into the record speech recognition under
is trained for their for their voice and

there's speech peculiarities and stuff
like that and then it does the same thing.

It puts up the words that I
can tell by watching T.V.

which is which hopefully
most people can't.

But the basic thing is if you see
it's because people make mistakes.

OK.

And if you make a mistake on the keyboard
you get some weird combination of

letters that doesn't make any sense.

So there are other kinds of
mistakes too but that's one kind.

If you make a mistake with the speech
recognition you get a real word.

It's the wrong word but but it's a real
word so that you don't realize that

doesn't make sense you get two
senses later say wait a minute

and different yes.

Difficult to explain the language was
a couple of things basic just constructing

it know because I could make up
whatever I wanted and so it's easy.

You know.

And not easy but it's like no one's
no one's telling me what to do or

anything like that.

I just have to follow my own rules.

If I don't like the rules
I can change the rules.

Or read it.

The difficulty was was kind
of kind of three ways.

One is I made up all this
stuff then went out to

Hollywood to work with the actors and
coach them a coach and

is now it's time to shoot the scene and
they may or may not say it right.

And if they said it wrong.

But it sounded like it could be the real.

Language because no one's heard
this things before except for me so

I'm the one who would
know it that this point.

I'd say OK fine and I make a note to
myself he was supposed to say told he said

to OK from now on it's too good to
change it so I had to but I had to start

keeping track of things that that word of
my doing so that made it a little harder.

They also changed subtitles on me
originally something supposed to mean

something that would mean something
else that was already on films I had to

dramatically figure out OK
how does that make any sense.

So that was hard.

Once the book came out.

The whole language creation thing
became much more difficult because.

Prior to that again.

No no and no one was no inserted.

So whatever they said that becomes right.

Once the book is out what they
said had to match the book.

So if they were saying words that were in
the book I had to make sure they said it

correctly and
if I'm making up a new sentence.

I had to follow the grammar of the way
I explained in the book I couldn't just

make up something brand new so it was much
harder for the movies after Star Trek

three to make up the language that it was
making it up in the first place because

the rules are out there and everyone
knows what they are I can just say I was

just going to do that you know and
the other thing that was hard.

Now I'm thinking about it
is when I wrote the book.

It's called the cling on dictionary but

the first part of it is
a grammatical description and

the second part is it is a dictionary in a
column of English in a column of going on.

But for the group radical
part what I did in writing it

is look at all the sentences that I made
up for the movie that exemplified whatever

grammatical feature it
was I was talking about.

And said OK here's how
you do whatever whatever.

So I'm looking at all these sentences and
every once in a while.

Like four sentences that had the same
thing same suffix or whatever in it and

say OK here's how it works in
three of them made sense to me.

I remember why I did that on
the fourth one I couldn't for

the life of me remember why I did it that
way and how I'm going to explain this.

And then I was really.

Frustrating and hard and
I felt like I was writing my dissertation

all over again because my dissertation
was based on a dead language so

it was all paper work
looking at manuscripts and

things like that not sitting down and
saying to somebody.

How do you say how do you say.

But then I realized that this sentence
number four was not in the movie.

I made it up but
it never made its way in the movie.

So I just crossed it out.

So I could I could go along.

I couldn't do that.

Writing my dissertation I couldn't cross
things out but for this dictionary I

could as long as number four wasn't wasn't
really there but that was that was hard.

Actually the hardest part of writing the
dictionary was not that the hardest part

of writing the dictionary was
making up new words because like

I said before if I only had
the words in the dictionary that

were in the movie the book would
have been very very thin so hard.

What was hard was deciding what
the words should mean what am I

going to I can just pick up Webster's
Unabridged I'm going to make a play on

versions of all those words
right that's too much.

So I had to restrict it somehow.

So what I'm going to make up words for
and what am I not.

And that was hard.

That was hard that not that hard from
a from a narrow linguistic phonetics or

medical point of view but from a broader
cultural social point of view.

And I made of a few decisions.

One was as bizarre as this sounds.

Whatever I make up I'm not going to make
up any new words many words not yet in

the movie any new words that have anything
to do with cling on culture or geography.

Which sounds weird if I'm making up the
cling on dictionary when I'm leaving out

the words have anything to do with
click on culture and the reason was.

I'm not a screenwriter.

I'm not writing new a new movies I'm not
writing new episodes and I was afraid that

when they come along and do that they're
going to create stuff that's not going to

match what I'm going will have created and
I want the language to match.

What's on T.V. and what's in the movie so
I let them do it first and

then I'll come in back fit and
create vocabulary for it.

OK.

I've since relaxed that rule for
myself and I've made up all kinds

of cling on culture but at the time at
the time that that was my thinking.

Yeah claim that is the big one for sure.

And I started out I said
with Vulcan initially and

then I did some more bow
a little more vocal for

enterprise that poor series that
lasted longer than it should have.

And more Vulcan for
the new Star Trek movie

than the one that's just called
Star Trek with the new cast.

Of I mean for that movie.

I also did Romulan and you can hear this
stuff kind of in the background as people

mumbling in the back there's no main
character saying any of this stuff but

they're back there and they're talking
correctly because they had a good teacher

that that that the Atlantean for Atlantis.

I made up a language
Polynesian like language for

a T.V. show that never made it to
the air was called The Dictator starring

Christopher Lloyd in the plot was.

He plays the leader of some
South Sea island nation.

And he gets deposed and he and his family
moved to Queens and open a laundromat.

That was that was the with
the story was and

the producers thought to be a good idea
for there to be a language that he

brings his family bring with him from
the island they speak from time to time.

Amongst themselves.

So I made up a Polynesian sounding
language and they were it was interesting

because for that when they didn't want the
words to mean anything they just wanted

a collection of words that they could pull
when they needed one to support the plot.

So I don't know what any of
these words meant I just made up

words have the numbers I made up numbers
that really made sense and if you know

Polynesian Micronesian language is this
what I made up could fit into that

thing so someone who is an expert knows
I'm just saw the set of numbers they

say that's some kind of Polynesian
language I don't know what it is but it.

You know it makes sense.

Christopher Lloyd himself had what
I thought was a brilliant idea.

Which was that in each episode.

They would say a couple words and the next
it was so say those words again and

a couple words more in the next
one say all those words again and

a couple words more so by the time it got
to the end of the season they could carry

on a little conversation the language and
everybody would understand.

I was brilliant.

Unfortunately they shot two maybe
three episodes of this thing and

there was a big writers'
strike in Hollywood.

So they never put it on the air
because that's all they had they

didn't want to put on two episodes and
then pull it.

And by the time the writers' strike
was over going to last a long time all

the people involved the project
were doing different things and

never got back together again.

So it never aired anyplace but I did that.

And there was another one.

In the camera.

I don't know what this language was
called The movie was called something

like the enemy within.

I don't know if that's right or
not but some name like that.

Was done and I Max's fancy science
fiction movie and the plot of that one.

Was there's invaders from outer space.

These guys from outer space have
been watching Earth for millennia.

And thinking the people on earth are just
primitive nobody is there no threat to

the universe was something
happened on Earth.

There was a great technological
breakthrough that now earth

is becoming a threat.

So these people had to come to Earth to
sabotage this project to make sure that

there was no great advance and the earth
people would not threaten the universe.

So they came to earth and this kid happen
to see their spaceship led in his backyard

so he went and watched them and they're
down in their cave that the spaceship

made and they're talking some
strange language that I made up.

And then one of them says we shouldn't
talk our language we should talk

English because we're going to go out and
infiltrate So we have to practice English

which is a brilliant plot device so they
don't have to use the language very much.

And there are many subtitles.

And then they go off and
they go to sabotage this thing but

the kid finds out about it.

So he goes and.

And sabotages it he foils their plot and
the world is saved.

I didn't know until this was all done.

With this movie was because it turns
out that this great technologic.

For calling on any other
made up language like that.

And no one knows it's never been tried or
tested in court or anything like that it

was a lot of a lot of discussion and the
closest experience that I had with that.

Where we thought we might
settle this somehow or

other was I got a call from
a company once years ago.

That makes these globes like like snow
globes you turned upside down and

it snows.

But it didn't snow they would
they were about this big and

they had little little Star Trek
ships inside the enterprise or

whatever one had a cling
on ship that blink.

Lights and you push a button on the thing
and they wanted to say make cling on

Sounds so they got the idea of putting in
a little bit like a cling on the skit.

It sounds like it's funny and it wasn't.

It was serious battle scene.

They want they want to put in there and
where they were going to take that from.

This red tape that I don't I made
a couple of tapes they were like Berlitz

language learning tapes one was
called conversational queen on.

And the very very beginning of that you
hear the couple of people on a ship

presumably yelling orders
at each other with.

Explosions splosion is going on and
dramatic music and all this stuff.

OK And that's what they were and
I don't know fifteen seconds maybe that's

what they wanted to put
into this global thing.

So they contacted Paramount who owns
the copyright so the world said OK fine.

So they went to Simon and Schuster.

Which is the publisher of this tape and
said Can we use that little bit of

the tape to put on a chip to put
in this globe and they said no.

I don't know why they said no but
they said no.

All right.

What we're going to do
what are we going to do so

they went to pocketbooks which is
the publisher of the dictionary.

I should point out that pocketbook
Simon shoes are paramount as all

the same company.

Nevertheless.

They went to pocketbooks.

And said.

Can we use the words in the dictionary
to put in this globe and

pocketbook said sure.

So then they came to me and they said.

Are all of the words.

On that tape and

this little thing at the beginning
of the tape are all of those words.

Also in the dictionary.

Because I think it was if they are they've
got permission to use the words.

So they can use that.

And I said.

And this was several years
before Bill Clinton.

It depends on what you mean by word.

And this lawyer who I was
talking to says What do you mean

I said well take English
the word the word walk.

OK you have walk walks
walking walked walk or

if you're making a dictionary is that
one entry or is that five entries.

You know is it one entry with little
instructions somewhere else about how you

can make words out of it in other words or

is it five separate entries is
it five words or is it one word.

There's a long silence on the phone.

And then the lawyers said can
you put that in writing and

I said OK so I wrote this letter
to the Paramount lawyer and

sent it off in the meantime they told me
to make another tape with another skit.

So that this whole thing you know they
could make it work around the things so

I found someone who I could teach
cling on to pretty quickly.

At least to get the sounds right.

And we found a recording studio and
we recorded.

She and I you know yelling at each
other and cling on and explosions and

music and all that stuff.

Then put this thing on tapes and then
little chips and bats and said I'm off to

Taiwan or Korea or someplace
where they put all this together.

So I'm waiting for this globe to come out
and never comes never comes never comes.

And I finally called him up and
I said what's going on.

And they said well we couldn't use
what you sent us and I said why not.

And they said there weren't
enough sound effects.

So I thought the whole big deal was
the language you know that's what

you were concerned although no it
didn't sound effects on this that but

it doesn't matter because Simon and
Schuster finally relented and

they let him let him use the thing.

The point of the story is as a result
of not knowing getting an end to that

I don't know.

And I don't know what it last week.

I was I was in Boise Idaho of all places
doing something similar to this and

I was with a guy named Paul Frommer
who's a guy who made up the language for

Avatar and had the same same same
thing I could do you want to

do you want to do you know are you
concerned about Fox you concerned about

Paramount Yes OK Now that hasn't stopped
people from using it all over the place.

So I mean the opera happened
without Paramount's permission.

I'm sure they know about it.

I'm sure it's fine and people all over
the place are using the language a lot.

The There's a note of the organization
of the people who study language

really is going on really really seriously
is called the cling on Language Institute.

There is such a thing.

It's headquartered in Philadelphia which
is me as the guy who in charge of it lives

in Philadelphia because it's all
virtual It's all email and internet and

stuff like that people all over the world.

They have a deal with Paramount so
they can they can publish stuff and

cling on impairment.

So that's fine but
it's really really never been tested.

So I don't know.

OK.

You know when captioning was brand new
the reason the reason I got into into

capturing it all was
was it was two things.

Primarily because I needed a job.

But besides that when caption
first started the philosophy of

capturing was very very different from
what it is now the thinking at the time

was the captions the subtitles
had to be highly edited.

So I don't know if you had
experience if you've had experience

going to a foreign film where you know
the language that the film is in and

you read this English subtitles.

And you say you know the English
subtitles this long they're going to get

a little bit of money.

And capturing it was kind
of like that initially and

the reason it was and
had been traditionally for years.

Before there was closed captioning.

There was there was captioning
there was caption on T.V.

which is now we would call open captioning
But what it was is there was subtitles.

There but you couldn't turn him on and
off like you can with closed captioning.

And where it was used primarily was
in reruns of stuff on P.B.S. So

a program Masterpiece Theater was one of
these where it would run on Sunday nights.

With no captions and then run again
on Thursday afternoon or something or

other with caption That's the deaf
people could watch it then.

And the philosophy for that in the fall so
few for movies that have been captured or

subtitle for deaf people part of that was
this editing thing and the reason for

that was because deaf
occasion in this country.

For a long time wasn't very good frankly.

So the conventional wisdom was
someone graduating from a deaf high

school was reading at a fourth
grade reading level which means for

than order for
them to understand the subtitles

had to simplify the grammar simplify the
vocabulary so in capturing first started.

There was a list of words and

if someone said something that was
not a word that was not on that list.

We couldn't put it in a caption we had
to find a synonym for it somehow or

other unless it was a technical term or
a name of a person or something like that.

And the same thing with the grammar it had
to simplify the grammars of having these

convoluted complicated sentences
like I'm probably saying right now.

We cut it into two or
three short sentences.

What happened was.

When captioning began deaf people for
the first time was sitting and

watching television with their hearing
family members or hearing friends.

Because the big the big innovation in
capturing was you could turn it on and

off so you could so the captors could be
there when the show was on the first time

if you didn't want to you
didn't have to watch them.

Then watch together with the hearing
people in the hearing people would say

Come here peace in the captions.

That's not what they said and
the deaf you say what you mean.

They said this and the caption said that.

So we get complaints.

You know how come you changed it.

I don't know fourth grade reading
level have to simplify and

they'd say well how
are we supposed to learn

any new words if we never see them
we know how to use dictionaries.

You know clever enough we
can figure all this out.

So over time the philosophies shifted so

that now capturing is pretty
much from a timid slow down in

order to make them not appear too fast
on the screen because they go too fast.

You can't read them and there's also
technological limitations of how fast

the television said basically
can print out the words.

But other than that
they're not at all unless

the person doing it didn't
hear what they said.