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Lakota

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Lakota is one of the five main language divisions within the Dakotan group of the Siouan family. These languages are Dakota (Santee-Sisseton), Dakota (Yankton-Yanktonai), Lakota (Teton), Nakoda (Assiniboine) and Nakoda (Stoney). Lakota is spoken mainly in the western half of South Dakota. There are also speakers in Montana and Saskatchewan.

Lakota is one of the North American languages for which many orthographies have been devised by: native speakers, linguists, and missionaries. The sounds of the language are first described in a linguistic representation. Equivalents are then given in several of the other orthographies. Data for the orthographies comes from various sources noted in the bibliography. Jan Ullrich has a more detailed analysis of Lakota writing systems.

Note:  There are several Roman Orthography conventions on this site that may require further explanation.  On the charts below, there is lots of phonetic terminology that may not be familiar to everyone.

This page uses no characters outside the Unicode standard.
Community Names:
  • Cheyenne River
  • Fort Peck
  • Lower Brulé
  • Pine Ridge
  • Rosebud
  • Standing Rock
  • Wood Mountain

Consonants in Siouanist Orthography

  bilabial alveolar palato-alveolar lateral palatal velar rounded velar glottal
voiceless stop
p
t
č
k
ʔ
aspirated stop
pʰ
tʰ
čʰ
kʰ
ejective stop
pˀ
tˀ
čˀ
kˀ
voiced stop
b
voiceless fricative
s
š
x
h
ejective fricative
sˀ
šˀ
xˀ
voiced fricative
z
ž
γ
nasal / resonant
m
n
l
y
w

Vowels in Siouanist Orthography
front
back
high
i
u
high nasalised
į
ų
mid
e
o
low
a
low nasalised
ą

Notes

  • Stress is shown by the ácute accent.
  • The aspirated stops are pronounced with a h-release before /i/, /į/, and /u/. They are pronounced with an x-release before /ų/, /o/, /a/, /ą/. The type of aspiration before /e/ depends on the individual speaker or grammatical environment. The velar-aspirate (x-release) and glottal-aspirate (h-release) stops are not different sounds in Lakota, although several orthographies treat them differently.
  • /k/ is pronounced [g] before /m/, /n/, /l/, and /w/. Most orthographies write ‹g› in this position. /p/ is pronounced [b] and written ‹b› before l.

Lakota Orthographies

Sioiuanist Riggs 1852 Boas & Swanton, Deloria 1910/1932 Buechel 1939 Manhart 1970 Traditional Colorado University 1970 Ullrich 1992 White Hat 1973 SICC Txakini Net Siouan Sioiuanist
p p p p (ṗ) p p p p̄ p̄ p p p
pʰ p‘ p‘ p ph ph p p ph ph pʰ
[pˣ] (p‘) pȟ ṗ ṗ px [pˣ]
pˀ p̧ p’ p’ p’ p’ pˀ p’ p’ p’ p’ p? pˀ
b b b b b b b b b b b b b
m m m m m m m m m m m m m
w w w w w w w w w w w w w
t t t t (ṫ) t t t t̄ t̄ t t t
tʰ t‘ t‘ t th th t t th th tʰ
[tˣ] (t‘) tȟ ṫ ṫ tx [tˣ]
tˀ ţ t’ t’ t’ t’ tˀ t’ t’ t’ t’ t? tˀ
s s s s s s s s s s s s s
sˀ ş s’ s’ s’ (s’) sˀ s’ s’ s’ s’ s? sˀ
z z z z z z z z z z z z z
n n n n n n n n n n n n n
l l l l l l l l l l l l l
č ć c c (ċ) c č č c̄ c̄ c c^ č
čʰ c‘ c‘ c čh čh ċ c̀ ch c^h čʰ
čˀ ç c’ c’ c’ c’ čˀ č’ c’ c̀’ c’ c? čˀ
š ś ś ś ś ś/s š š ṡ s̀ sh s^ š
šˀ ś’ ś’ ś’ ś’ (ś’) šˀ š’ ṡ’ s̀’ sh’ s^? šˀ
ž ź ź j j j/ź ž ž j j zh z^ ž
y y y y y y y y y y y y y
k k k k (k̇) k k k k̄ k̄ k k k
kʰ k‘ k‘ k kh kh k k kh kh kʰ
[kˣ] (k‘) kȟ k̇ k̇ kx [kˣ]
kˀ ķ k’ k’ k’ k’ kˀ k’ k’ k’ k’ k? kˀ
x ḣ ḣ ḣ ḣ ḣ/r ȟ ȟ ḣ ḣ x h^ x
xˀ ḣ’ ḣ’ ḣ’ (ḣ’) ȟˀ ȟ’ ḣ’ ḣ’ x’ h^? xˀ
γ ġ ġ ġ ġ g ǧ ǧ ġ ġ gx g γ
[g] g g g g g g g g g g [g]
ʔ ø ’ ’ ’ ’ ʔ ’ ’ ’ ’ ? ʔ
h h h h h h h h h h h h h
i i i i i i i i i i i i i
į iƞ į iƞ iƞ in į iŋ iƞ iƞ in iN į
u u u u u u u u u u u u u
ų uƞ~oƞ ų uƞ~oƞ uƞ~oƞ un~on ų uŋ uƞ uƞ un uN ų
e e e e e e e e e e e e e
o o o o o o o o o o o o o
a a a a a a a a a a a a a
ą aƞ ą aƞ aƞ an ą aŋ aƞ aƞ an aN ą
Sioiuanist Riggs 1852 Boas & Swanton, Deloria 1910/1932 Buechel 1939 Manhart 1970 Traditional Colorado University 1970 Ullrich 1992 White Hat 1973 SICC Txakini Net Siouan Sioiuanist

Notes

  • Only the following orthographies mark stress: Buechel 1939, Buechel Manuscript, Manhart 1970, Colorado University 1970, Ullrich 1992, Net Siouan.
  • All of the orthographies overspecify, meaning that they sometimes write two letters for the same sound. In the Siouanist column, brackets indicate the sound is not phonemic (is not a different sound in the language), these are: pˣ, tˣ, kˣ, g. Another overspecification is: ‹on›/‹un›~‹oƞ›/‹uƞ› for /ų/,
  • There is no standard orthography for all of the Lakota communities, although some First Nations or some educational authorities may have decided officially on one orthography.

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Last Update: November 12, 2008