Paul Frommer, a professor of clinical management communication at the USC Marshall School of Business, got the gig to create about 1,000 words for the Na'vi, who inhabit the moon of Pandora in James Cameron's "Avatar." Frommer worked on the rules of grammar and pronunciation for about four years. "The constraint, of course, is that the language I created had to be spoken by humans," he says. Frommer used to be director of the Center for Management Communication at USC.

Noted: Frommer talked about the gig on KPCC's Patt Morrison.

Photo: USC