Lakota Kinship Terms

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Four spelling versions are prepared: Basic, NetSiouan, Traditional, and Lakhota Project.
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See also Lakhota Spelling and Pronunciation for details.


This page consists of the three main parts, Lakota-English Dictionary with alphabetically ordered terms of address for the relatives, helping to construct all the forms (my-, your-, his-, etc.); English-Lakota Dictionary, grouping the terms into categories, elaborating on the phylosophical aspects of the kinship system, and Grammar, providing the essential information about the kinship terms usage.

Lakota words are given in italics, a tilde (~) inside an entry stands for a given relative, e.g. ate! father! (niyate, your ~ = "your father").

The terms of address (vocatives) are written with an exclamation sign (!). I tried to saturate the text with cross-references to provide better and quicker understanding of the dozens of the kinship terms. Enjoy!

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