Lakota language

The Lakota language ( ), also referred to as Lakhota, Teton or Teton Sioux, is a Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of the Sioux tribes. Lakota is mutually intelligible with the two dialects of the Dakota language, especially Western Dakota, and is one of the three major varieties of the Sioux language.

Speakers of the Lakota language make up one of the largest Native American language speech communities in the United States, with approximately 2,000 speakers, who live mostly in the northern plains states of North Dakota and South Dakota.

Another key figure was Albert White Hat Sr., who taught at and later became the chair of the Lakota language program at his alma mater, Sinte Gleska University at Mission, South Dakota, one of the first tribal-based universities in the US. His work focused on the Sicangu dialect using an orthography developed by Lakota in 1982 and which today is slowly supplanting older systems provided by linguists and missionaries.

History and origin

The Lakota people's creation stories say that language originated from the creation of the tribe. Other creation stories say language was invented by Iktomi.

A wholly Lakota newspaper named the Anpao Kin ("Daybreak") circulated from 1878 by the Protestant Episcopal Church in Niobrara Mission, Nebraska until its move to Mission, South Dakota in 1908 continuing until its closure in 1937. The print alongside its Dakota counterpart Iapi Oaye ("The Word Carrier") played an important role in documenting the enlistment and affairs including obituaries of Native Sioux soldiers into the army as America became involved in World War I.

Revitalization efforts

In 2024, a Lakota dub of the 2012 superhero movie The Avengers was released in 2024 on the Disney+ platform coordinated by for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Councilman-At-Large Cyril Archambault and language teacher Eugene “Ray” Taken Alive; plans for the dub kickstart after Ray's family become close acquaintances with Mark Ruffalo following his involvement and presence in the Dakota Access Pipeline protests – Ruffalo himself reprises for the dub along with other of the main Avengers cast with language tutoring by the Lakota team.

Phonology

Vowels

Lakota has five oral vowels, , and three nasal vowels, (phonetically ). Lakota and are said to be more open than the corresponding cardinal vowels, perhaps closer to and . Orthographically, the nasal vowels are written with a following , , or ; historically, these were written with ogoneks underneath, . No syllables end with consonantal .

{|class="wikitable" style=text-align:center

! colspan=2|

! scope="col" | Front

! scope="col" | Central

! scope="col" | Back

! rowspan="2" scope="row" | Close/High

! scope="row" | oral

! scope="row" | nasal

! scope="row" | Mid

! rowspan="2" scope="row" | Open/Low

! scope="row" | oral

! scope="row" | nasal

A neutral vowel (schwa) is automatically inserted between certain consonants, e.g. into the pairs , and . So the clan name written phonemically as has become the place name Ogallala.

Consonants

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! colspan=2|

! Bilabial

! Dental

! Alveolar

! Postalveolar

! Velar

! Uvular

! Glottal

! colspan="2" | Nasals

! rowspan="4" | Plosives and affricates

! voiceless

! voiced

! aspirated

| /

! ejective

! rowspan="3" | Fricative

! voiceless

! voiced

! ejective

! colspan="2" | Approximant

The voiced uvular fricative becomes a uvular trill () before (Compare with the similar examples in Mandan.)

Orthographies, standardization, and teaching materials

Several orthographies as well as ad hoc spelling are used to write the Lakota language, with varying perspectives on whether standardization should be implemented. In 2002, Rosebud Cultural Studies teacher Randy Emery argued that standardization of the language could cause problems "because the language is utilized diversely. If standardization is determined to be the approach... then the question is whose version will be adopted? This will cause dissent and politics to become a factor in the process." which on December 13, 2012, was formally adopted by the Rosebud Sioux Tribe per Tribal Resolution No. 2012–343. This resolution also banned the Lakota Language Consortium and its "Czech orthography" from the reservation and its educational system. This ban was a response to a series of protests by community members and grassroots language preservation workers, at Rosebud and other Lakota communities, against the Lakota Language Consortium (LLC). Sonja John writes that "The new orthography the Czech linguist advocates resembles the Czech orthography – making it easier for Czech people to read. The Europeans predominantly use the internet to give the impression that this "Czech orthography" is a Lakota product and the standard for writing Lakota." "The Rosebud Sioux Tribe was the first of the Lakota tribes to take legal action against the self-authorizing practices the LLC committed by utilizing names of Lakota language experts without their consent to obtain funding for their projects."

In 2006 some of the Lakota language teachers at Standing Rock chose to collaborate with Sitting Bull College, and the Lakota Language Consortium (LLC), with the aim of expanding their language curriculum. Teachers at Standing Rock use several different orthographies. Tasha Hauff writes,