Lakota language

Lakota
Lakȟótiyapi
Pronunciation	[la.ˈkχo.ti.ja.pi]
Native to	United States, with some speakers in Canada
Region	Primarily North Dakota and South Dakota, but also northern Nebraska, southern Minnesota, and northern Montana
Ethnicity	Teton Sioux
Native speakers	(6,000 cited 1997)
Language family	Siouan Western Siouan Mississippi Valley Siouan Dakotan Sioux Lakota
Language codes
ISO 639-3	lkt
ELP	Lakota

Lakota (also Lakhota, Teton, Teton Sioux) is a Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of the Sioux tribes. While generally taught and considered by speakers as a separate language, Lakota is mutually intelligible with the other two languages (cf. Dakota language), and is considered by most linguists one of the three major varieties of the Sioux language. The Lakota language represents one of the largest Native American language speech communities in the United States, with approximately 6,000 speakers living mostly in northern plains states of North Dakota and South Dakota.

The language was first put into written form by missionaries around 1840 and has since evolved to reflect contemporary needs and usage.

History and Origin

The language of these people is only known from the tribe in which it originates. The Lakota People would tell how the tribe came to be, but that language originated from the creation of the Sioux tribe.

Sound system

Vowels

Lakota has five oral vowels, /i e a o u/, and three nasal vowels, /ĩ ã ũ/ (phonetically [ɪ̃ ə̃ ʊ̃]). Lakota /e/ and /o/ are said to be more open than the corresponding cardinal vowels, perhaps closer to [ɛ] and [ɔ]. Orthographically, the nasal vowels are written with a following ⟨ƞ⟩, ⟨ŋ⟩, or ⟨n⟩; historically, these were written with ogoneks underneath, ⟨į ą ų⟩. No syllables end with consonantal /n/.

		Front	Central	Back
high	oral	i		u
	nasal	iŋ		uŋ
mid		e		o
low	oral		a
	nasal		aŋ

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasals		m [m]		n [n]
Plosives and affricates	unaspirated	p [p]	t [t]		č [tʃ]	k [k]		’ [ʔ]
	voiced	b [b]				g [ɡ]
	ejective	p’ [pʼ]	t’ [tʼ]		č’ [tʃʼ]	k’ [kʼ]
Fricative	voiceless			s [s]	š [ʃ]		ȟ [χ]
	voiced			z [z]	ž [ʒ]		ǧ [ʁ]
	ejective			s’ [sʼ]	š’ [ʃʼ]		ȟ’ [χʼ]
Approximant		w [w]		l [l]	y [j]			h [h]

The voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/ becomes a uvular trill ([ʀ]) before /i/ and in fast speech it is often realized as the voiced velar fricative /ɣ/. The voiceless aspirated plosives have two allophonic variants each: those with a delay in voicing ([pʰ tʰ kʰ]), and those with velar friction ([pˣ tˣ kˣ]), which occur before /a/, /ã/, /o/, /ĩ/, and /ũ/ (thus, lakhóta, /laˈkʰota/ is phonetically [laˈkˣota]). For some speakers, there is a phonemic distinction between the two, and both occur before /e/. No such variation occurs for the affricate /tʃʰ/. Some orthographies mark this distinction; others do not. The uvular fricatives /χ/ and /ʁ/ are commonly spelled ⟨ȟ⟩ and ⟨ǧ⟩.

All monomorphemic words have one vowel which carries primary stress and has a higher tone than all other vowels in the word. This is generally the vowel of the second syllable of the word, but often the first syllable can be stressed, and occasionally other syllables as well. Stress is generally indicated with an acute accent: ⟨á⟩, etc. Compound words will have stressed vowels in each component; proper spelling will write compounds with a hyphen. Thus máza-ská, literally "metal-white", i.e. "silver; money" has two stressed vowels, the first a in each component. If it were written without the hyphen, as mazaska, it could only have one stress.

Orthography

Several varying othographies are currently in use to write the Lakota language. Words are often spelled phonetically and multiple spellings can be considered correct. Sinte Gleska University uses an orthography developed by Albert White Hat and the school's Lakota Studies Department. The writing system of the New Lakota Dictionary has been adopted as the standard orthography by the Sitting Bull College, by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and is also used in a number of schools on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations. This is the system presented below.

The vowels are a, e, i, o, u; nasal vowels are aŋ, iŋ, uŋ. Pitch accent is marked with an acute accent: á, é, í, ó, ú, áŋ, íŋ, úŋ on stressed vowels (which receive a higher tone than non-stressed ones)

The following consonants approximate their IPA values: b, g, h, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, w, z. Y has its English value of /j/. An apostrophe, ’, is used for glottal stop.

A caron is used for sounds which are not written with Latin letters in the IPA: č /tʃ/, ǧ /ʁ/, ȟ /χ/, š /ʃ/, ž /ʒ/. Aspirates are written with h: čh, kh, ph, th, and velar frication with ȟ: kȟ, pȟ, tȟ. Ejectives are written with an apostrophe: č’, ȟ’, k’, p’, s’, š’, t’.

The spelling used in modern popular texts is often written without diacritics. Besides failing to mark stress, this also results in the confusion of numerous consonants: /s/ and /ʃ/ are both written s, /h/ and /χ/ are both written h, and the aspirate stops are written like the unaspirates, as p, t, c, k.

Alphabet

Standard Lakota Orthography, as used by majority of schools, is in principle phonemic, which means that each character (grapheme) represents only one distinctive sound (phoneme), except for the distinction between glottal and velar aspiration which is treated phonetically.

Lakota alphabet

Letter	Name of the letter	Usual phonetic value (IPA)
A a	a	[a]
Aŋ aŋ	aŋ	[ã]
B b	be	[b]
Č č	cu	[tʃ]
Čh čh	ci	[tʃʰ]
Č’ č’	c’ó	[tʃʼ]
E e	e	[e]
G g	gli	[ɡ]
Ǧ ǧ	ǧu	[ʁ] / [ʀ]
H h	ha	[h]
Ȟ ȟ	ȟe	[χ]
I i	i	[ɪ]
Iŋ iŋ	iŋ	[ĩ]
K k	ku	[k]
Kh kh	ki	[kʰ]
Kȟ kȟ	ka	[kˣ]
K’ k’	k’o	[kʼ]
L l	la	[l]
M m	ma	[m]

Letter	Name of the letter	Usual phonetic value (IPA)
N n	na	[n]
O o	o	[o]
P p	pu	[p]
Ph ph	phi	[pʰ]
Pȟ pȟ	pa	[pˣ]
P’ p’	p’o	[pʼ]
S s	sa	[s]
Š š	še	[ʃ]
T t	tu	[t]
Th th	ti	[tʰ]
Tȟ tȟ	ta	[tˣ]
T’ t’	t’o	[tʼ]
U u	u	[ʊ]
Uŋ uŋ	uŋ	[ʊ̃]
W w	wa	[w]
Y y	ya	[j]
Z z	za	[z]
Ž ž	je	[ʒ]
’	keze	[ʔ]

Phonological processes

A common phonological process which occurs in rapid speech is vowel contraction, which generally results from the loss of an intervocalic glide. Vowel contraction results in phonetic long vowels (phonemically a sequence of two identical vowels), with falling pitch if the first underlying vowel is stressed, and rising pitch if the second underlying vowel is stressed: kê: (falling tone), "he said that," from kéye; hǎ:pi (rising tone), "clothing," from hayápi. If one of the vowels is nasalized, the resulting long vowel is also nasalized: čaŋ̌:pi, "sugar," from čanháŋpi.

When two vowels of unequal height contract, or when feature contrasts exist between the vowels and the glide, two new phonetic vowels, [æː] and [ɔː], result: iyæ̂:, "he left for there," from iyáye; mita:, "it's mine," from mitáwa.

The plural enclitic =pi is frequently changed in rapid speech when preceding the enclitics =kte, =kiŋ, =kšto, or =na. If the vowel preceding =pi is high, =pi becomes [u]; if the vowel is non-high, =pi becomes [o] (if the preceding vowel is nasalized, then the resulting vowel is also nasalized): hi=pi=kte, "they will arrive here," [hiukte]; yatkaŋ=pi=na, "they drank it and...," [jatkə̃õna].

Lakota also exhibits some traces of sound symbolism among fricatives, where the point of articulation changes to reflect intensity: zí, "it's yellow," ží, "it's tawny," ǧí, "it's brown". (Compare with the similar examples in Mandan.)

Grammar

Word order

The basic word order of Lakota is subject–object–verb, although the order can be changed for expressive purposes (placing the object before the subject to bring the object into focus or placing the subject after the verb to emphasize its status as established information). It is postpositional, with adpositions occurring after the head nouns: mas'opiye el, "at the store" (literally 'store at'); típi=kiŋ okšaŋ, "around the house" (literally 'house=the around') (Rood and Taylor 1996).

Rood and Taylor (1996) suggest the following template for basic word order. Items in parenthesis are optional; only the verb is required. It is therefore possible to produce a grammatical sentence that contains only a verb.

(interjection) (conjunction) (adverb(s)) (nominal) (nominal) (nominal) (adverb(s)) verb (enclitic(s)) (conjunction)

Interjections

When interjections appear, they begin the sentence. A small number of interjections are used only by one gender, for instance the interjection expressing disbelief is ečéš for women but hóȟ for men, for calling attention women say máŋ while men use wáŋ. Most interjections, however, are used by both genders.

Conjunctions

It is common for a sentence to begin with a conjunction. Both caŋke and yuŋkaŋ can be translated as and; k’eyaš is similar to English but. Each of these conjunctions joins clauses. In addition, the conjunction na joins nouns or phrases.

Adverbs and Postpositions

Lakota uses postpositions, which are similar to English prepositions, but follow their noun complement. Adverbs or postpositional phrases can describe manner, location, or reason. There are also interrogative adverbs, which are used to form questions.

Synonymity in the postpositions él and ektá

To the non-Lakota speaker, the postpositions él and ektá sound like they can be interchangeable, but although they are full synonyms of each other, they are used in different occasions. semantically (word meaning), they are used as locational and directional tools. In the English language they can be compared to prepositions like "at", "in", and "on" (when used as locatives) on the one hand, and "at", "in", and "on" (when used as direction-als), "to", "into", and "onto", on the other.[Pustet]

A cursor for when to use él and when to use ektá can be determined by the concepts of stasis (motionless) or kinesis (motion); and space vs. time. These features can produce four different combinations, also called semantic domains, which can be arranged as follows [Pustet]

1.- space/stasis: "in the House" [thípi ki él] (This sentence is only describing location of an object, no movement indicated)

2.- space/ kinesis: "to the House"[thípi ki ektá] (This sentence is referring to movement of a subject, it is directional in nature)

3.- time/ stasis: "in the winter"[waníyetu ki él] (This sentence refers to a static moment in time, which happens to be during winter)

4.- time / Kinesis: "in/ towards the winter" [waníyetu ki ektá][Pustet] (This sentence is delegated to time, but time which is soon to change to another season)

In abbreviation, when a context describes no motion,él is the appropriate postposition; when in kinesis,ektá shall be more appropriate. They are both used in matters of time and space.

Nouns and Pronouns

As mentioned above, nominals are optional in Lakota, but when nouns appear the basic word order is subject–object–verb. Pronouns are not common, but may be used contrastively or emphatically.

Lakota has four articles: waŋ is indefinite, similar to English a or an, and kiŋ is definite, similar to English the. In addition, waŋjí is an indefinite article used with hypothetical or irrealis objects, and k’uŋ is a definite article used with nouns that have been mentioned previously.

Demonstratives

There are also nine demonstratives, which can function either as pronouns or as determiners.

	Distance from speaker
	near	neutral	far
singular	lé	hé	ká
dual	lenáos/ lenáyos	henáos/ henáyos	kanáos/ kanáyos
plural	lená	hená	kaná

The demonstrative hé is the most neutral. Once a noun has been located, either by pointing or by description, in space or in the listener’s mind, hé can then be used. Before that, lé or ká is usually used to demonstrate exactly what is meant, although hé may also be used while pointing.

Verbs

Verbs are the only word class that are obligatory in a Lakota sentence. Verbs can be active, naming an action, or stative, describing a property. (Note that in English, such descriptions are usually made with adjectives.)

Verbs are inflected for first-, second- or third person, and for singular, dual or plural grammatical number.

Morphology

Verb Inflection

There are two paradigms for verb inflection. One set of morphemes indicates the person and number of the subject of active verbs. The other set of morphemes agrees with the object of transitive action verbs or the subject of stative verbs.

Most of the morphemes in each paradigm are prefixes, but plural subjects are marked with a suffix and third-person plural objects with an infix.

First person arguments may be singular, dual, or plural; second or third person arguments may be singular or plural.

Subject of active verbs

	singular	dual	plural
first person	wa-	uŋ(k)-	uŋ(k)- … -pi
second person	ya-		ya- … -pi
third person	unmarked		-pi

Examples: máni "He walks." mánipi "They walk."

Subject of stative verbs

	singular	dual	plural
first person	ma-	uŋ(k)-	uŋ(k)- … -pi
second person	ni-		ni- … -pi
third person	unmarked		-pi

Object of transitive verbs

	singular	dual	plural
first person	ma-		uŋ(k)- … -pi
second person	ni-		ni- … -pi
third person	unmarked		-wicha-

Example: waŋwíčhayaŋke "He looked at them" from waŋyáŋkA "to look at something/somebody."

Subject and object pronouns in one verb
If both the subject and object need to be marked, two affixes occur on the verb. Below is a table illustrating this. Subject affixes are marked in italics and object affixes are marked in underline. Some affixes encompass both subject and object (such as čhi- ...). The symbol ø indicates a lack of marking for a particular subject/object (as in the case of 3rd Person Singular forms). Cells with three forms indicate Class I, Class II, and Class III verb forms in this order.

	me	you (sg.)	him/her/it; them (inanimate)	us	you (pl.)	them (animate)
I		čhi-1 ...	waø- ... blø- ... mø- ...		čhi- ... -pi	wiĉhawa- ... wiĉhabl- ... wiĉham- ...
you (sg.)	maya- ... mayal-2 ... mayan- ...		yaø- ... lø- ... nø- ...	uŋya- ... -pi uŋl- ... -pi uŋn- ... -pi		wiĉhaya- ... wiĉhal- ... wiĉhan- ...
he/she/it	maø- ...	niø- ...	øø- ...	uŋ(k)ø- ... -pi	niø- ... -pi	wičhaø- ...
we		uŋni-3 ... -pi	uŋ(k)ø- ... -pi		uŋni- ... -pi	wičhauŋ(k)-4 ... -pi
you (pl.)	maya- ... -pi mayal- ... -pi mayan- ... -pi		yaø- ... -pi lø- ... -pi nø- ... -pi	uŋya- ... -pi5 uŋl- ... -pi uŋn- ... -pi		wičhaya- ... -pi wičhal- ... -pi wičhan- ... -pi
they	ma- ... -pi	ni- ... -pi	... -øpi	uŋ- ... -pi	ni- ... -pi	wičha- ... -pi

• ¹ The affix čhi- covers cases where I-subject and you-object occurs in transitive verbs.
• ² Class II and Class III verbs have irregular yal- and yan- respectively.
• ³ These prefixes are separated when uŋ(k)- must be prefixed while ni- et al. must be infixed.

Example: uŋkánipȟepi "We are waiting for you" from apȟé "to wait for somebody."

• ⁴ uŋ(k)- precedes all affixes except wičha-. In the last column, verbs which require uŋ(k)- to be prefixed are more complex because of competing rules: uŋ(k)- must be prefixed, but must also follow wičha-. Most speakers resolve this issue by infixing wičhauŋ(k) after the initial vowel, then repeating the initial vowel again.

Example: iwíčhauŋkičupi "We took them" from ičú "to take something/somebody."

• ⁵ Since the suffix -pi can appear only once in each verb, but may pluralize either subject or object (or both), some ambiguity exists in the forms: uŋ- ... -pi, uŋni- ... -pi, and uŋya-/uŋl-/uŋn- ... -pi.

Enclitics

Lakota has a number of enclitic particles which follow the verb, many of which differ depending on whether the speaker is male or female.

Some enclitics indicate the aspect, mood, or number of the verb they follow. There are also various interrogative enclitics, which in addition to marking an utterance as a question show finer distinctions of meaning. For example, while he is the usual question-marking enclitic, huŋwó is used for rhetorical questions or in formal oratory, and the dubitative wa functions somewhat like a tag question in English (Rood and Taylor 1996; Buchel 1983). (See also Men and women's speech below.)

Men and women's speech

A small number of enclitics (approximately eight) differ in form based on the gender of the speaker. Yeló (men) ye (women) mark mild assertions. Kštó (women only according to most sources) marks strong assertion. Yo (men) and ye (women) mark neutral commands, yeto (men) and nito (women) mark familiar, and ye (both men and women) and na mark requests. He is used by both genders to mark direct questions, but men also use huo in more formal situations. So (men) and se (women) mark dubitative questions (where the person being asked is not assumed to know the answer).

While many native speakers and linguists agree that certain enclitics are associated with particular genders, such usage may not be exclusive. That is, individual men sometimes use enclitics associated with women, and vice versa (Trechter 1999).

Examples of enclitic usage

Enclitic	Meaning	Example	Translation
haŋ	continuous	yá-he	"was going"
pi	plural	iyáyapi	"they left"
la	diminutive	záptaŋla	"only five"
ke	attenuative	wašteke	"somewhat good"
ktA	irrealis	uŋyíŋ kte	"you and I will go" (future)
šni	negative	hiyú šni	"he/she/it did not come out"
s’a	repeating	eyápi s’a	"they often say"
seca	conjecture	ú kte séče	"he might come"
yelo	assertion (masc)	blé ló	"I went there (I assert)"
ye	assertion (fem)	hí yé	"he came (I assert)"
he	interrogative	Taku koyakipa he?	"What do you fear?"
huwo	interrogative (masc. formal)	Tokiya lá huwó?	"Where are you going?"
huwe	interrogative (fem. formal, obsolete)	Takula huwé?	"What is it?"
waŋ	dubative question	seca waŋ	"can it be as it seems?"
ške	evidential	yá-ha ške	"he was going, I understand"
keye	evidential (hearsay)	yápi kéye	"they went, they say"

Ablaut

• all examples are taken from the New Lakota Dictionary.

The term "ablaut" refers to the tendency of some words to change their final vowel in certain situations. Compare these sentences.

Šúŋka kiŋ sápa čha waŋbláke.
Šúŋka kiŋ sápe.
Šúŋka kiŋ sápiŋ na tȟáŋka.

The last vowel in the word "SápA" changed each time. This vowel change is called "ablaut". Words which undergo this change are referred to as A-words, since, in dictionary citations, they are written ending in either -A or -Aŋ. These words are never written with a final capital letter in actual texts. Derivatives of these words generally take the ablaut as well, however there are exceptions.

There are three forms for ablauted words: -a/-aŋ, -e, -iŋ. These are referred to as a/aŋ-ablaut, e-ablaut, and iŋ-ablaut respectively. Some words are ablauted by some and not others, like "gray" hóta or hótA. Ablaut always depends on what word follows the ablauted word.

A/Aŋ-Ablaut

This is the basic form of the word, and is used everywhere in which the other forms are not utilized.

E-Ablaut

There are two cases in which e-ablaut is used.
---1. Last word in the sentence
---2. Followed by a word which triggers e-ablaut

1. Last word in sentence

  Examples

  Heciya ye He went there. (e-ablaut of the verb yÁ)

  Yute She ate it. (e-ablaut of the verb yútA)

  Tipi kiŋ paha akaŋl he. The house stands on a cliff. (e-ablaut of the verb hÁŋ)

2. Followed by a word which triggers e-ablaut

There are three classes of words which trigger e-ablaut

a) various enclitics -such as- ȟča, ȟčiŋ, iŋčhéye, kačháš, kiló, kštó, któ, lakȟa, -la, láȟ, láȟčaka, ló, séčA, sékse, s’eléčheča, so, s’a, s’e, šaŋ, šni, uŋštó
b) some conjunctions and articles -such as- kiŋ, kiŋháŋ, k’éaš, k’uŋ, eháŋtaŋš
c) some auxiliary verbs -such as- kapíŋ, kiníča (kiníl), lakA (la), kúŋzA, phiča, ši, wačhíŋ, -yA, -khiyA

  Examples

  Škáte šni. He did not play. (enclitic)
  Škáte s’a. He plays often. (enclitic)
  Škáte ló. He plays. (enclitic (marking assertion))
  Okȟáte eháŋtaŋš... If it is hot... (conjunction)
  Sápe kiŋ The black one (definite article)
  Glé kúŋze. He pretended to go home. (auxiliary verb)
  Yatké-phiča. It is drinkable. (auxiliary verb)

Iŋ-Ablaut

The iŋ-ablaut (pronounced i by some) occurs only before the following words:

kte (irrealis enclitic)
yeto (familiar command enclitic)
na, nahaŋ (and)
naiŋš (or, and or)
ye (polite request or entreaty enclitic)

  Examples

  Waŋyáŋkiŋ yeto. Take a look at this, real quick.
  Yíŋ kte. She will go.
  Skúyiŋ na wašté. It was sweet and good.
  Waŋyáŋkiŋ yé. Please, look at it.

Phrases

"Hau, kola", literally, "Hello, friend," is the most common greeting, and was transformed into the generic motion picture American Indian "How!", just as the traditional feathered headdress of the Teton was "given" to all movie Indians. As "hau" is the only word in Lakota which contains a diphthong, /au/, it may be a loanword from a non-Siouan language.

"Hau" is spoken only by men; women use the greeting "Haŋ" or "Haŋ kolá."

Other than using the word friend, one typically uses the word "cousin" or "cross-cousin" since everyone in the tribe was as family to each other. These words are very important to the language's tone of proper respect. The terms are as follow:

"Taŋhaŋši" N - my male cross-cousin (man speaking, term of address)
"Taŋhaŋšitku" N - his male cross-cousin
"Taŋhaŋšiya" V-CAUSATIVE - to have someone for a male cross-cousin

"Haŋkaši" N - my female cross-cousin (man speaking, term of address)
"Haŋkašitku" N - his female cross-cousin
"Haŋkašiya" V-CAUSATIVE - to have someone for a female cross-cousin

"(S)cephaŋši" N - my female cross-cousin (woman speaking, term of address)
"(S)cepȟaŋšitku" N - her female cross-cousin
"(S)čepaŋšiya" V-CAUSATIVE - to have someone for a female cross-cousin

"šic'eši" N - my male cross-cousin (woman speaking, term of address)
"šic'ešitku" N - her male cross-cousin
"šic'ešiya" V-CAUSATIVE - to have someone for a male cross-cousin

"Hakataku" N - her brothers and male cross cousins, his sisters and female cross-cousins (i.e. relative requiring respect)
"Hakataya" V-CAUSATIVE - to have someone for a sibling or cross-cousin of the opposite sex

Challenges faced by the Lakota language

Nearly two centuries ago missionaries taught the Lakotas and Dakotas to write in their own language, believing they would learn to write English more easily once they comprehended the usage of written forms of language and had a visual alphabet which was the same as English (Powers). The existence of the written Lakota language has long been overlooked, and has caused disparities amongst members of reservations as well as non-native speakers trying to learn the language.

Since the 1970s, colleges established in Lakota reservations have taught to write Lakota to their students according to that individual reservations' variation of the language, therefore orthographic rules and even pieces of the alphabet vary amongst the Lakota people themselves. One of the main problems is that scholars have looked at closely related languages such as the Dakota language to figure out ways in which to effectively write Lakota, such as Eugene Buechel, whose Lakota language dictionary was written with Dakota as a "base" language, along with linguistic studies of his own. After the 1970s, however, controversies on the correctness of Buechel's works began to surface and the correct way to write Lakota was again in question.(Powers)

"As every Lakota teacher knows, a major problem is the kind of diacritics that individuals select in writing the alphabet. Perhaps this is the greatest disagreement, but the only solution is to accept a singular way to write the language" (Powers)

In "Reading and Writing the Lakota Language: Yes, We can!", Franci Washburn writes of the frustration he faces as a Lakota when non-Lakota members assume his people have no written language. His article was written after a University newspaper erroneously stated that the Lakota had no written language, and when he ( a Lakota himself) called to ask for a correction, he was told he was wrong, and that in fact, there was no evidence that the Lakota Indians had a way to write their language.

"The realities of Indian belief and existence have become so misunderstood and distorted at this point that when a real Indian stands up and speaks the truth at any given moment, he or she is not only unlikely to be believed, but will probably be contradicted and 'corrected' by the citation of some non-Indian and totally inaccurate expert" (Washburn)

"It seems that Lakota people--and Indian people in general-- are not authorities on their own languages, culture and spirituality. Only white people can say whether we are even literate. This problem is more than just a lack of respect for the Native American's authority on their own language and culture,... but it promulgates the assumption that Native people are not only non-literate, but illiterate, even in our own languages. it seems ironic to me that some white people ignorantly assume that Native Americans are ignorant" (Washburn)

Learning Lakota: language revitalization efforts

Since the placement of native Americans into reservations, there have been many attempts to get rid of the Lakota language.

The Jesuits who founded St. Francis Mission on the Rosebud Reservation (1886)and Holy Rosary Mission at Pine Ridge (1888), for example, established mandatory boarding schools for the Lakota children where they would be severely corporally punished for speaking their Native Language. The Federal government at the time required Lakota children to attend these boarding schools because it was believed that separating children from their parents would enhance the civilization process (Powers). This civilization process was mainly that aspect of being forced to speak English, along with lessons in carpentry and trades for boys and homemaking skills for girls in an effort to "domesticate" them. The language survived this oppression however, because children came home to a family and community that still valued speaking Lakota. "Lakota persisted through the recognized natural immersion afforded by daily conversation in the home, the community at reservation-wide events, even in texts written in the form of letters to family and friends. people demonstrated their cultural resilience through the positive application of spoken and written Lakota."(Powers)

By the late 1940s,however, the Lakota feared the language would disappear because the younger generations were not interested in their cultural heritage, but rather on the all-consuming white culture.Besides the schools' strict usage of English, employment opportunities were based on speaking English, a "mixed blood" Indian who was bilingual or spoke only English was more likely to be hired than a "full blood" who spoke Lakota. Thus straying away from the Lakota culture became a method of survival, besides cultural preference. (Powers)

the people of the Lakota have strived to keep their culture and language in tact of the decades. In 'Turning the Tables on Assimilation', the article shows the tenure of the Lakota and their ability to keep their language in tact. In the late 1800s & early 1900s, American societies tried to assimilate the Lakota's into their society to make the Lakota more 'Civilized'. Fortunately, The Natives persisted in keeping their language and culture in tact. In November 2012, incoming president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Bryan Brewer, announced that he intends "to lead a Lakota Language Revitalization Initiative that will focus on the creation and operation of Lakota language immersion schools and identifying all fluent Lakota speakers." A Lakota language immersion daycare center is scheduled to open at Pine Ridge.

As of 2012, Lakota immersion classes are provided for children in an experimental program at Sitting Bull College on the Standing Rock ReservationWhere children speak only Lakota for their first year (powers). A Lakota Dictionary project is ongoing, and "Lakota speakers regularly gather to add new words to make it a living, contemporary language." One example of a newly developed term would be "Wounspe omnaye; the words mean “stored language” in Lakota and describe a laptop computer." Lakota speakers can upload photos with Lakota language audio descriptions at the LiveAndTell website.
Albert White Hat Sr. was a Lakota educator, author, linguist, tribal and spiritual leader, and respected elder. He was raised to follow the traditional Lakota ways. He only spoke Lakota until age seven, which his when he started his formal schooling. He was one of the biggest activist for saving and preserving the Lakota language and traditions. He wrote and published the first Lakota textbook and glossary.

Lakota Language Education Program (LLEAP)

In the year 2011 Sitting Bull College (North Dakota) and the University of South Dakota have begun programs to create efficient teachers of the Lakota Language. By earning a Bachelor of Arts in Education at the University of South Dakota or a Bachelor of science in education at Sitting Bull College, students can major in "Lakota Language Teaching and Learning", as part pf the relatively new Lakota Language and Education Program, or LLEAP.

LLEAP is a four year experimental program designed to create at least 30 new effective Lakota Language teachers by the year 2014, and was funded by 2.4 million dollars in grants from the U.S. Department of Education. By the end of the experimental phase, SBC and USD will permanently offer the Lakota Language Teaching and Learning degree into their regular curriculum for students. The current LLEAP students' tuition and expenses are covered by the grant from the U.S. Department of education. LLEAP is the first program of its kind, offering courses to create effective teachers in order to save a Native American language from going extinct and potentially educate the 120,000 prospective Lakota Speakers in the 21st century.

Government Support

Under the Bush administration, Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii was able to get a bill passed that would have schools use Native American languages as a language of instruction, and as a result the Lakota language is now being taught in South Dakota's elementary schools and community colleges.

Self-study

Some resources exist for self-study of Lakota by a person with no or limited access to native speakers. Here is a collection of selected resources currently available:

• Lakotiya Woglaka Po! - Speak Lakota! : Level 1, 2, 3 & 4 Textbooks and Audio CDs by Lakota Language Consortium. (elementary/secondary school level)
• New Lakota Dictionary. (ISBN 0-9761082-9-1)
• Lakota: A Language Course for Beginners by Oglala Lakota College (ISBN 0-88432-609-8) (with companion 15 CDs/Tapes) (high school/college level)
• Reading and Writing the Lakota Language by Albert White Hat Sr. (ISBN 0-87480-572-4) (with companion 2 tapes) (high school/college level)
• University of Colorado Lakhota Project: Beginning Lakhota, vol. 1 & 2 (with companion tapes), Elementary Bilingual Dictionary and Graded Readings, (high school/college level)
• Lakota Dictionary: Lakota-English/English-Lakota, New Comprehensive Edition by Eugene Buechel, S.J. & Paul Manhart (ISBN 0-8032-6199-3)
• English-Lakota Dictionary by Bruce Ingham, RoutledgeCurzon, ISBN 0-7007-1378-6
• A Grammar of Lakota by Eugene Buechel, S.J. (OCLC 4609002; professional level)
• The article by Rood & Taylor, in (professional level)
• Dakota Texts by Ella Deloria (a bilingual, interlinear collection of folktales and folk narratives, plus commentaries). (University of Nebraska Press, ISBN 0-8032-6660-X; professional level) (Note: the University of South Dakota edition is monolingual, with only the English renditions.)
• A "Lakota Toddler" app designed for children ages 2–9 is available for the iPhone.

Musical Uses

Ogala Song

The Ogala are a sub branch of the Lakota Native Americans noted for the use of language in religious song.

Purpose

The Ogalas viewed music as part of the natural world, so things such as breathing, sweating, and crying are natural songs from the body. The Ogala's music is extremely important to them because it is the words that they used to communicate with the Spirit World.

Lakota influences in English

Just as people from different regions of countries have accents, Lakota Native Americans who speak English have some distinct speech patterns. These patterns are displayed in their Grammatical sequences and can be heard through some Phonological differences. These unique characteristics are also observed in Lakota youth, even those who only learned English.

References

• Palmer, Jessica Dawn. The Dakota Peoples: A History of Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota through 1863.Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008. ISBN 978-0-7864-3177-9.
• Rood, David S. and Allan R. Taylor. (1996). Sketch of Lakhota, a Siouan Language. Handbook of North American Indians, Vol. 17 (Languages), pp. 440–482. Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution. Online version.
• Ullrich, Jan. (2008). New Lakota Dictionary. Lakota Language Consortium. ISBN 0-9761082-9-1.
• Pustet, Regina. (2013). "Prototype Effects in Discourse and the Synonymy Issue: Two Lakota Postpositions." Cognitive Linguistics 14.4, 349-78. doi:10.1515/cogl.2003.014
• Powers, William K. "Saving Lakota: Commentary on Language Revitalization." American Indian Culture & Research Journal 33.4 (2009): 139-49. EBSCOhost. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.
• Henne, Richard B. "Verbal Artistry: A Case for Education."ANTHROPOLOGY & EDUCATION QUARTERLY. no. 4 (2009): 331-349.
• SNEVE, PAUL. 2013. "Anamnesis in the Lakota Language and Lakota Concepts of Time and Matter." Anglican Theological Review 95, no. 3: 487-493. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 25, 2013).
• McGinnis, Anthony R. 2012. "When Courage Was Not Enough: Plains Indians at War with the United States Army." Journal Of Military History 76, no. 2: 455-473. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 25, 2013).
• Andrews, Thomas G. 2002. "TURNING THE TABLES ON ASSIMILATION: OGLALA LAKOTAS AND THE PINE RIDGE DAY SCHOOLS, 1889-1920s." Western Historical Quarterly 33, no. 4: 407. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2013).
• Pass, Susan. 2009. "Teaching Respect for Diversity: The Oglala Lakota." Social Studies 100, no. 5: 212-217. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed October 24, 2013).
• Washburn, Franci. "Reading and Writing the Lakota Language: Yes, We Can!" American Indian Quarterly 27.1/2 (2003): 429-32. Academic Search Premier. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.
• Campbell, Kimberlee. "Sitting Bull Offers New Lakota Curriculum." Tribal College Journal 22.3 (2011): 69-70. Academic Search Premier. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.

Further reading

• Buechel, Eugene. (1983). A Dictionary of Teton Sioux. Pine Ridge, SD: Red Cloud Indian School.
• DeMallie, Raymond J. (2001). "Sioux until 1850". In R. J. DeMallie (Ed.), Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, Part 2, pp. 718–760). W. C. Sturtevant (Gen. Ed.). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. ISBN 0-16-050400-7.
• de Reuse, Willem J. (1987). "One hundred years of Lakota linguistics (1887-1987)". Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, 12, 13-42. Online version.
• de Reuse, Willem J. (1990). "A supplementary bibliography of Lakota languages and linguistics (1887-1990)". Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics, 15 (2), 146-165. (Studies in Native American languages 6). Online version.
• Parks, Douglas R.; & Rankin, Robert L. (2001). "The Siouan languages". In Handbook of North American Indians: Plains (Vol. 13, Part 1, pp. 94–114). Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution.
• Trechter, Sarah. (1999). "Contextualizing the Exotic Few: Gender Dichotomies in Lakhota". In M. Bucholtz, A.C. Liang, and L. Sutton (Eds) Reinventing Identities (pp. 101–122). New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-512629-7

External links

• Lakhota Language
• Lakota Language Consortium
• Lakȟól'iya Owaákhiye Othí language forum
• New Lakota Dictionary online
• Omniglot
• Our Languages: Lakota (Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre)
• Niobrara Wocekiye Wowapi: The Niobrara Prayer Book (1991) Episcopal Church prayers in Lakota
• Palatalization in Lakhota
• Swadesh vocabulary lists for Lakota and other Siouan languages (from Wiktionary)
• Tusweca Tiospaye, language learning