Lakota language

Lakota or Lakhota is the largest of the five major dialects of the Sioux language. The Lakota dialect represents one of the largest Native American language speech communities left in the United States, having approx. 8000-9000 speakers living mostly in northern plains states of North and South Dakota. Lakota is predominantly associated with the Teton Sioux bands living west of the Missouri River. The language was first put into written form by missionaries ca. 1840 and has since evolved to reflect contemporary needs and usage. Lakota is part of the Siouan language family.

Sounds

Vowels

Lakota has five oral vowels, /i e a o u/, and three nasal vowels, /? ã ?/. The nasal vowels are sometimes written with a following {{unicode|}} or , and sometimes with ogoneks underneath, .

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Consonants

The voiced plosives /b/ and /g/ should perhaps be considered allophones of /p/ and /k/, since for almost all words they are in complementary distribution, with and occuring only before /l/, /m/, /n/, /w/, and /j/, as well as in certain morphophonemic situations. The voiceless aspirated plosives have two allophonic variants each: those with glottal friction {{IPA|()}}, and those with velar friction {{IPA|()}}, which occur before /a/, /ã/, /o/, /õ/, /?/, and /?/ (thus, lakhóta, {{IPA|/la'k?ota/}} is phonetically {{IPA|}}). For some speakers, there is a phonemic distinction between the two, and both occur before /e/. Some orthographies mark this distinction; others do not. The velar fricatives /x/ and {{IPA|/?/}} are commonly spelled {{unicode|}} (sometimes ) and .

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