There are at least 4 spelling systems for this language:
1. S.R. Riggs (1850-90) & E. Beuchel (1920-40), used by native speakers;
2. F. Boas & E. Deloria (1930-40);
3. D. Rood & A. Taylor (1970s), which is used in scientific linguistics.
4. "NetSiouan" by J. Koontz (1990s) designed to communicate in the Web.
I will not elaborate on the historical details here, but the fact is that the existence of many orthographies does not help us study Lakhota.
Anyway, I will try to introduce the most simple and most accurate spelling and you could correct me if you have any objections.
We'll designate sounds with symbols in slashes: /k/, /a/, etc. The Lakota words will be typically put in italics: Hechanun oyakihi "you can do that".
Stressed syllables will be marked with:
Characters for accented vowels | ||
---|---|---|
Character | Lakhota Example | HTML Code |
Á, á | Ánpa, pahá | Á á |
É, é | Énajin, wé | Á é |
Í, í | Ímapi, wínyan; | Í í |
Ó, ó | Óta, sóta | Ó, ó |
Ú, ú | Ú wo, shúnka | Ú ú |
The second style of putting accents is more natural but it has two drawbacks: you
cannot easily insert accented vowels from the keyboard and not all the fonts support them.
Perhaps now you do not see the proper picture with accented vowels. The accented
nasal vowels are supported only in J.Koontz TrueType Siouan Fonts.
The basis for the Lakota alphabet is English one. Additional diacritical marks are sub- and superscribed to English letters to denote some Lakota sounds. The most common are:
Friends, you are welcome to copy this page onto your disks. Mind that there is a dozen of *.gif files linked to this page (the specific Lakhota letters). You can copy GIF.ZIP file onto the same directory as this page and unpack it instead of copying the images one after another.
There are 8 vowels in Lakhota:
Lakhota Vowels | |||
---|---|---|---|
Front | Central | Back | |
High | /i/ /iN/ | - | /u/ /uN/ |
Mid | /e/ | - | /o/ |
Low | - | /a/ /aN/ | - |
1. Oral Vowels | ||
---|---|---|
Symbol | English Equivalent | Lakhota Example |
/a/ | father | ha, "skin/hide/bark"; Lakhota, "(Teton) Sioux" |
/e/ | step | he , "that; horn(s)" |
/i/ | pin | hi, "tooth; he came" |
/o/ | hawk | ho, "voice"; Lakhota |
/u/ | book | hu, "leg, bone" |
Note, that the pronunciation of these letters is always the same, resembling Latin
pronunciation, never diphthongizing as in English words late, pine,
bone, nor depending on the position in the syllable:
pet - Pete, cock - coke, tun
- tune, etc.
2. Nasalized Vowels | |
---|---|
Symbol | Lakhota Example |
/aN/=/an/ (nasal /a/) | Wakan' Tan'ka, "Great Mystery"; wan, "a", indefinite art. |
/iN/=/in/ (nasal /i/) | hin, "fur, hair"; kin, "the", definite art. |
/uN/=/un/ (nasal /u/) | hunku, "his/her mother" |
The nasalized vowels are absent in English. The only hint for their pronunciation is American "nasal twang" that you can hear in the words "twang", "man". Actually, you utter nasalized vowels "through the nose", like French "ENcore", "bON tON" etc.
Nasal vowel is NOT two sounds, vowel + /ng/ as in meeting. It is ONE nasalized vowel. Anyway, we'll spell these vowels with TWO letters: vowel + "n".
Beuchel uses a special letter "en with a tail" () instead of "n"; Boas&Deloria, Rood&Taylor use /a/, /i/, and /u/ with a "nasal hook" resembling small "c" below the letters: , , and . ; NetSiouan uses uppercase "N" to show nasality of a vowel: kaN, waN, haN, kiN, huNku.
We must keep in mind that the native speakers use lowercase "en", using a simple rule to dissern the "n" as a sign of nasality as in hunku from "n" denoting the consonant /n/ as in mani, walk.
If you are still here, friend, here is the rule. If you're out, skip it and try to 'dig it' some time later.
RULE 1. The letter "n" ALWAYS stands for a consonant /n/ before
a vowel: nu'ni, "to wander"; nape',
"hand".
Else, 'n' is just a sign of the nasality of the preceding vowel:
Now that's enough for the vowels.
Many Lakhota consonants are similar or almost similar to English ones.
These are:
Symbol |
English Equivalent |
Lakhota Example |
/b/ |
back |
kabu'bu "he drums" |
/s/ |
step |
sa'pa "black" |
/sh/ ( |
shoe |
sha'pa "dirty" |
/z/ |
Zoo |
zi "yellow; pale" |
/m/ |
moon |
miye' "I" |
/n/ |
noon |
niye' "you" |
/l/ |
love |
lowan' "(s)he sings" |
/w/ |
wait |
wa' "snow" |
/y/ |
you |
ya'mni "three" |
/h/ |
hat |
hau "hi!; yes (m.s.)" |
Lakhota /s/, /z/, /sh/ are longer than English counterparts in word-initial position.
The remaining consonants have some problems either in pronunciation or in
spelling.
To begin with, /sh/ is actually spelled with "es with a hachek/wedge",
that is, "s" with a small v-shaped mark above it: . Standard Windows fonts have this letter
(//), but I don't know what will happen with it in the Internet and on the Mac
computers and with Wintel PC's with national fonts. However, Windows user can input this
letter pressing "ALT" key and, keeping the Alt pressed, pressing 0154 on the
numeric pad. (Note: the "NumLock" indicator must be turned on - with a NumLock
gray key!). NetSiouan spelling for /sh/ is "s^", that is, un'ka
will be "s^uN'ka".
Next problem, the consonant /j/. It is a voiced /sh/. You can hear it in "aZure" and "pleaSure". NetSiouan has "z^" or "zh" for /j/. Colorado Lakhota Project has ; Native speakers use "j" as in ojan'jan, light (=NetSiouan "ozhaN'zhaN").
Well, friends, if you are bored and tired, go to the end of the file, where I put
the overall clue for the spelling. If no, I'll go on.
They are like English /p/ in "sPit", /t/ in "sTack", /ch/ in imaginary "pCHeck", /k/ in "sKi". Anyway, they are NEVER aspirated (accompanied with a puff of air) as in "Pity", "Tack", "CHew", and "Keep"! I'm Russian and we Russians never aspirate /p/, /t/, /c/, /k/, so for us it is very easy not to aspirate them and for a Yankee it's hard to kick the habit of aspirating -
Paha' Sa'Pa (Black Hills);
he Ta'ku he? (what's this?)
he wiCa'wala shni! (I don't believe him/that!), shi'Ca (bad)
Kila'khota kte h^cin (a wannabe).
"C" is spelled ( )
in Colorado Lakhota Project.
The /h^/ sound in the last example is another unheard-of Lakhota consonant. Native speakers used 100-60 years ago letter "r", now they use "h with a hachek" ( ), that is v-shaped mark above it. We do not have this character in a standard font (J.Koontz's fonts have this! ). The closest sound is Spanish "x" in Mexico and Texas, "g" in gente, "j" in junta; German "ch" in Achtung! and Haende hoch!, and Russian "x" in xorosho! (good!). Examples in Lakhota:
Heh^a'ka Sa'pa (Black Elk);
ih^a'h^a (to laugh (at));
h^uya' (common eagle).
We can now talk about -
that is, /p/, /t/, /c/, /k/ plus aspiration. Rood&Taylor (authors of "Colorado
University Lakhota Project") transcribe these consonants as /ph/, /th/, /ch/, and
/kh/. Native speakers use either an apostrophe resembling the little "c" : /p/,
/t/, /c/, /k , or, rather, do not show aspiration at all. They write
"Wakan Tanka" instead of "WakhaN' ThaN'ka" or "Wakan
Tanka".
But we (still :-) are not experts in Lakhota (Lak`ota, Lakota, Lakota), so we have
to show aspiration, at least now. You know, there are lots of words in Lakhota with the
meaning depending on the aspiration:
tho'ka (enemy); to'kha shni (that's
alright, nothing's the matter); thoka' (first)
makha' (the earth); maka' (the skunk);
paha' (the hill(s)); pha'ha (the sculp).
Talking about the aspiration, it is "HEAVY", h^-like, before /a/, /an/,
/o/, and /un/:
pha (head), than'ka (big), Lakho'ta, thunka'shila;
and "SOFT", h-like, before /i/, /in/, and /u/:
phila'mayaye (thank you), nuphin' (both), khute' (he shoot at
him).
Aspiration is always soft in /ch/:
chatka' (left-hand(ed)), chetan' (hawk), machu'wita (I feel
cold).
By the way, we can try to show aspiration with the "left single quote" (Alt-145
or Ctrl-`,` in Word for Win).
The consonants /p/, /t/, /c/, /k/, /s/, /sh/=//, /h^/ can be uttered in yet another manner in Lakhota: with a -
Glottal stop is a pause in breathing after with there is an explosion of air. It is
depicted with a small (superscripted) question sign. We cannot superscribe in the HTML
files so we'll use a usual "?" character. Native speakers just use an apostrophe
(') but we use it for an accent, so, memorizing this we shall use (?) instead. Actually,
you, Americans, use glottal stop in an exclamation uh-oh (= ?uh-?oh), and also when
dropping "t" in casual speech: Instead of saying "But not that
mountain" you would say "Bu? no? tha? moun?ain", wouldn't you?!
Examples in Lakhota:
op?o' (fog), t?e (he is dead), chic?u' (I gave you that), mak?u'
wo (give me that (man speaking)), thate' s?a (It's often windy), wash?a'ka
(strong), h^?okha' (drum singer), nachi'h^?un (I hear you).
The last controversial consonant in Lakhotan alphabet:
This is a voiced /h^/ ("voiced velar fricative"), it occurs also in Spanish (amigo), Greek ("Gamma") and some Slavic languages. Perhaps if you'll try to utter long non-stopping English /g/ you would approximate Lakhotan /g^/.
Examples: mag^a'ju (rain), Sichan'g^u (Rosebud Lakhota tribe), ag^u'yapi
(bread), g^i (brown/rusty/gray), ma'g^a (a cultivated field), mag^a'
(goose), ishta'g^ung^a (blind).
Native speakers usually don't use any additional marks in addition to the letter
"g" for the sound /g^/. The English-like /g/ is rather rare in Lakota and is
used in combinations /gl/, /gm/, /gn/, /gw/: Thatha'nka kin agli!
(The buffaloes have come!), or at the end of contracted words: Shung-ma'nitu
than'ka ob wachi' (Dancing with the wolf). The general rule for discerning /g^/ from
/g/ is like the Rule 1 for /n/ and nasal vowels:
RULE 2. The letter "g" ALWAYS stands for /g^/ before vowels:
magaju, gu, ishtagunga.
Else it is pronounced as English /g/: gle'pa ((s)he vomits), owan'yang shi'ca
(looking bad = ugly).
...That's almost all for the first pronunciation lesson. Now, for a sumup:
Basic (me) |
Traditional (Beuchel) |
Colorado (Rood&Taylor) |
NetSiouan (Koontz) |
English example |
Lakhota example |
a |
father |
kana' "those yonder" |
|||
an |
|
|
aN |
(Fr. San serif) |
wanji' "one" |
b |
bad |
ble' "lake" |
|||
c |
|
c^, c |
(pchew) |
washi'cu(n) "White" |
|
c`, c |
c |
h |
c^h |
check |
chatka' "left-handed" |
c?, c', c |
c |
? |
c^? |
--- |
chic?u' "I gave you (it)" |
e |
set |
se'ce "it seems so" |
|||
g |
glove |
gle "he came home there" |
|||
g=g^ |
g |
|
g^, gh |
(Sp. amigo) |
wana'gi "ghost" |
h |
hit |
Ho'he "Assiniboine" |
|||
h^ |
|
h^, x |
--- |
mah^wa' "I'm sleepy" |
|
h^?, h^', h^ |
|
? |
h^?, x? |
--- |
wicho'h^an "ceremony" |
i |
sit |
wi "sun; moon; month" |
|||
in |
|
|
iN |
--- |
win'yan "woman" |
j |
|
z^, zh |
pleasure, Fr. bonjour |
jiji' "blond" |
|
k |
skip |
kiwa'shicu "urban Indian" |
|||
k`, k |
k |
kh |
keen |
ki "to rob" |
|
k?, k', k |
k |
k? |
--- |
mak?u' wo "Give me (that)" |
|
l |
let |
le "this" |
|||
m |
mills |
mi'la "knife" |
|||
n |
nest |
nu'npa "two" |
|||
o |
hawk |
Lako'ta "Lakota; Sioux" |
|||
p |
spit |
chanwa'paha "coup stick" |
|||
p`, p |
p |
ph |
pack |
pila'mayaye "thanks" |
|
p?, p', p |
p |
p? |
--- |
p?o "foggy" |
|
s |
see |
siha' "foot" |
|||
s?, s', s |
s' |
s? |
--- |
s?e "as if" |
|
sh |
|
s^ |
shop |
sha "red" |
|
sh?, sh' |
|
? |
s^? |
--- |
wash?a'ka "strong" |
t |
stick |
ta'ku "what" |
|||
t`, t |
t |
th |
team |
ti'pi "house" |
|
t?, t', t |
t |
t? |
--- |
t?e "(s)he died" |
|
u |
took |
wakshu'pi "beadwork" |
|||
un |
|
|
uN |
--- |
tun'pi "birth" |
w |
weak |
wa'ta "canoe" |
|||
y |
yen |
iya'pi "language" |
|||
z |
zero |
zintka'la "bird" |
|||
?, ', |
' |
? |
?uh-?oh! |
o?ihe "toilet" |
You can load TrueType fonts for Traditional and Colorado Lakota Project orthographies from J.Koontz Omaha-Ponca page.
See also my Lakhota Kinship page.
Hehanyan owihanke. Le miye Constantine.