Posted on: Sunday, May 27, 2001

Disney film 'Atlantis' is wordsmith's latest trek

USA Today

Everyone from flying elephants to lonely hunchbacks has had a chance to be a Disney animated hero. But never a linguist. Until now.

In the cartoon adventure "Atlantis: The Lost Empire," opening nationwide June 15, the main man of action is a man of words. The scholarly Milo Thatch (voiced by Michael J. Fox), who toils in a basement at the Smithsonian Institution in 1914, holds the key to the location of the legendary undersea continent in his hands. Literally. He alone can translate a journal written in Atlantean.

No one is happier about Milo's profession than linguist Marc Okrand, who not only created a readable and speakable Atlantean language for the movie, but also invented most of the Klingon and Vulcan dialogue in the "Star Trek" movies. The only other famous big-screen linguist Okrand can recall is the manipulative Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady."

He has more in common with Milo. Such as their bespectacled appearance. Says Okrand, "When I first met animator John Pomeroy, he said, 'I hope it doesn't bother you, but I'm going to be drawing sketches when I talk to you. You're the only linguist I've ever met, so I don't know what they look like or how they behave.' "

As a postdoctoral fellow, Okrand, 52, also did research in the bowels of the Smithsonian, although he never fixed the boiler like Milo does. Then again, Milo never tutored Vulcans and Klingons.

Both Trekkie tongues as well as Atlantean reflect the personality of the cultures. Vulcan, embodied by Leonard Nimoy's Mr. Spock, "is cool and collected." Klingon reveals the volatile nature of the race.

Atlantean is more flowing and soothing. "It's supposed to be like other languages," says Okrand, who based it on Indo-European.

Disney animators drew the 29 letters of the Atlantean alphabet with Okrand's help. He also suggested that Atlantean writing be read in a zigzag pattern, as if the words were wrapped around a pole. "It's a back-and-forth movement like water, so that worked."

There is another "Atlantis-Star Trek" connection. Okrand taught Nimoy as well as Kirstie Alley to speak Vulcan for "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." And Nimoy used Okrand's Berlitz-style tapes of Atlantean to learn his lines as the voice of Atlantis' king.

For "Khan," Okrand coached the actor through his recording session. Afterward, Nimoy declared, "Did anyone ever tell you you're insane?" Two decades or so later, Nimoy discovered Okrand also was responsible for Atlantean. He told the filmmakers: "He's insane."

A Vulcan never forgets.