A Linguist Who Worked on 'Avatar' Knows His Na'vi

Courtesy of Paul R. Frommer

Paul R. Frommer

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By Andrea Fuller

When Paul R. Frommer saw an e-mail message saying that the director James Cameron sought a linguist to develop a language for his "Project 880," Mr. Frommer jumped at the opportunity. Nearly five years later, that project has become the world's highest-grossing film, Avatar. Mr. Frommer, a professor of clinical management communication at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business who holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from USC, created the Na'vi language used by