How to Learn Lakota Online

Many Lakota speakers live in the states of North and South Dakota.

Lakota is a Sioux language, spoken by members of the Sioux tribe of indigenous peoples of North America. Lakota is mutually intelligible with Dakota, another Sioux language. Though many indigenous languages in North America face near extinction, you can still find a sizable amount of speakers of the Sioux languages. You can find a number of online resources to help you learn Lakota. You can also use online resources to learn about the history and culture of the Sioux peoples.

Instructions

1. Learn the sounds of Lakota. Lakota is written with the Latin alphabet, as it had no written form before contact with Europeans, so you will not need to learn a new script in order to read Lakota. Since there is no single official method of spelling Lakota, you may find different methods of transliteration of the sounds on different websites. Most websites will provide detailed explanations regarding the sound systems and spelling rules. Choose one that makes sense to you and use it as you practice writing Lakota. The website Omniglot.com features a chart of one of the standard Lakota spelling forms, as well as links to examples and information on the other forms.

2. Learn some phrases and basic grammar in Lakota. Omniglot.com and Native-Languages.org both provide several resources for learning all aspects of the Sioux language. These sites also include information on the Sioux culture and mythology. Learn about the context of the language and its people as you learn vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar structure.

3. Read some Lakota stories. As Lakota was originally a spoken language, the Lakota literary tradition only dates back a few hundred years. However, many of the Sioux tales and oral histories have since been written down and many of these are available online. Download a Lakota dictionary to help you as you read. You can find a number of different English-Lakota and Lakota-English dictionaries available to download online.

Tips & Warnings

• Learn the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Knowing the exact sounds of the symbols of the IPA will help you when you come across different spelling forms of Lakota, as the charts often use the IPA to explain how Latin letters represent sounds in Lakota.

• Practice with a Lakota speaker. Listening to and interacting with a Lakota speaker will help you improve in your language and give may offer you a greater appreciation of the Lakota oral tradition. Look for language partners on MyLanguageExchange or MeetUp.

References

• Omniglot: Writing Systems and Languages of the World: Lakota
• Ethnologue: Languages of the World: Lakota

Resources

• Dakota-Lakota Language and the Sioux IndianTribes
• Oceto Waka: Preservation of the Lakota Culture and Language
• MeetUp
• MyLanguageExchange
• International Phonetic Association