Sioux is a Siouan language spoken by over 33,000 Sioux

Sioux

The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...

 in the United States and Canada, making it the fifth most spoken indigenous language

Indigenous languages of the Americas

Indigenous languages of the Americas are spoken by indigenous peoples from Alaska and Greenland to the southern tip of South America, encompassing the land masses which constitute the Americas. These indigenous languages consist of dozens of distinct language families as well as many language...

 in the United States or Canada, behind Navajo

Navajo language

Navajo or Navaho is an Athabaskan language spoken in the southwestern United States. It is geographically and linguistically one of the Southern Athabaskan languages .Navajo has more speakers than any other Native American language north of the...

, Cree

Cree language

Cree is an Algonquian language spoken by approximately 117,000 people across Canada, from the Northwest Territories and Alberta to Labrador, making it the aboriginal language with the highest number of speakers in Canada. It is also spoken in the U.S. state of Montana...

, Inuit

Inuit language

The Inuit language is traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and to some extent in the subarctic in Labrador. The related Yupik languages are spoken in western and southern Alaska and Russian Far East, particularly the Diomede Islands, but is severely endangered in Russia today and...

 and Ojibwe.

Regional variation

Sioux has three major regional varieties

Variety (linguistics)

In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...

, with various sub-varieties:

1. Lakota
   Lakota language
   Lakota is a Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of the Sioux tribes. While generally taught and considered by speakers as a separate language, Lakota is mutually understandable with the other two languages , and is considered by most linguists one of the three major varieties of the Sioux...
   
   ( Lakȟóta, Teton, Teton Sioux)
2. Western Dakota
   Dakota language
   Dakota is a Siouan language spoken by the Dakota people of the Sioux tribes. Dakota is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the Lakota language.-Dialects:...
   
   ( Yankton-Yanktonai or Dakȟóta, and erroneously classified, for a very long time, as “Nakota
   Nakota
   The term Nakota is the endonym used by the native peoples of North America who usually go by the name of Assiniboine , in the United States, and of Stoney, in Canada....
   
   ”)
   • Yankton (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ)
   • Yanktonai (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna)
3. Eastern Dakota
   Dakota language
   Dakota is a Siouan language spoken by the Dakota people of the Sioux tribes. Dakota is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the Lakota language.-Dialects:...
   
   ( Santee-Sisseton or Dakhóta)
   • Santee (Isáŋyáthi: Bdewákhathuŋwaŋ, Waȟpékhute)
   • Sisseton (Sisíthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ)

Yankton-Yanktonai (Western Dakota) stands between Santee-Sisseton (Eastern Dakota) and Lakota within the dialect continuum. It is phonetically closer to Santee-Sisseton but lexically and grammatically it is much closer to Lakota. For this reason Lakota and Western Dakota are much more mutually intelligible than they are with Eastern Dakota. The assumed extent of mutual intelligibility is usually overestimated by speakers of the language. While Lakota and Yankton-Yanktonai speakers understand each other to a great extent, they each find it difficult to follow Santee-Sisseton speakers.

Distantly related to the Sioux language are the Assiniboine

Assiniboine language

The Assiniboine language is a Nakotan Siouan language of the Northern Plains, spoken by around 200 Assiniboine people, most of them elderly. The name Asiniibwaan is an Ojibwe term meaning "Stone Siouans"...

 and Stoney languages, whose speakers use the self-designation term Nakhóta or Nakhóda. Speakers of Lakota and Dakota do not understand either of the two Nakoda languages (Assiniboine and Stoney).

Phonetic differences

The following table shows some of the main phonetic differences between the regional varieties of the Sioux language. The table also provides comparison with the two closely related Nakota languages (Assiniboine and Stoney). They are not considered part of the Siouan nation (neither by the Sioux nor by themselves.) These languages (particularly Stoney) are not considered to be mutually intelligible with the Sioux language.

Sioux Sioux The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...					Assiniboine Assiniboine language The Assiniboine language is a Nakotan Siouan language of the Northern Plains, spoken by around 200 Assiniboine people, most of them elderly. The name Asiniibwaan is an Ojibwe term meaning "Stone Siouans"...	Stoney	gloss
Lakota Lakota language Lakota is a Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of the Sioux tribes. While generally taught and considered by speakers as a separate language, Lakota is mutually understandable with the other two languages , and is considered by most linguists one of the three major varieties of the Sioux...	Western Dakota		Eastern Dakota
	Yanktonai	Yankton	Sisseton	Santee
Lakȟóta	Dakȟóta		Dakhóta		Nakhóta	Nakhóda	self-designation
lowáŋ	dowáŋ		dowáŋ		nowáŋ		to sing
ló	dó		dó		nó		assertion
čísčila	čísčina		čístina		čúsina	čúsin	small
hokšíla	hokšína		hokšína	hokšída	hokšína	hokšín	boy
gnayáŋ	gnayáŋ	knayáŋ	hnayáŋ		knayáŋ	hna	to deceive
glépa	gdépa	kdépa	hdépa		knépa	hnéba	to vomit
kigná	kigná	kikná	kihná		kikná	gihná	to soothe
slayá	sdayá		sdayá		snayá	snayá	to grease
wičháša	wičháša		wičhášta		wičhášta	wičhá	man
kibléza	kibdéza		kibdéza		kimnéza	gimnéza	to sober up
yatkáŋ	yatkáŋ		yatkáŋ		yatkáŋ	yatkáŋ	to drink
hé	hé		hé		žé	žé	that

Lexical differences

There are also numerous lexical differences among the Sioux dialects as well as between the sub-dialects. Yankton-Yanktonai is in fact lexically closer to the Lakota language than it is to Santee-Sisseton. The following table gives some examples:

English gloss	Santee-Sisseton	Yankton-Yanktonai	Lakota
			Northern Lakota	Southern Lakota
child	šičéča	wakȟáŋyeža	wakȟáŋyeža
knee	hupáhu	čhaŋkpé	čhaŋkpé
knife	isáŋ / mína	mína	míla
kidneys	phakšíŋ	ažúŋtka	ažúŋtka
hat	wapháha	wapȟóštaŋ	wapȟóštaŋ
still	hináȟ	naháŋȟčiŋ	naháŋȟčiŋ
man	wičhášta	wičháša	wičháša
hungry	wótehda	dočhíŋ	ločhíŋ
morning	haŋȟ’áŋna	híŋhaŋna	híŋhaŋna	híŋhaŋni
to shave	kasáŋ	kasáŋ	kasáŋ	glak’óǧa

Writing systems

Life for the Dakota changed significantly in the 1800s as the early years brought increased contact with white settlers, particularly Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 missionaries

Missionary

A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...

. The goal of the missionaries was to introduce the Dakota to Christian beliefs. To achieve this, the missions began to transcribe the Dakota language. In 1836, brothers Samuel and Gideon Pond, Rev. Stephen Return Riggs

Stephen Return Riggs

Stephen Return Riggs was a Christian missionary and linguist who lived and worked among the Dakota Indians....

, and Dr. Thomas Williamson set out to begin translating hymns and Bible

Bible

The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 stories into Dakota. By 1852, Riggs and Williamson had completed a Dakota Grammar and Dictionary (Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Center). Eventually, the entire Bible had been translated.

Today, it is possible to find a variety of texts in Dakota. Traditional stories have been translated, children’s books, even games such as Pictionary

Pictionary

Pictionary is a guessing word game designed by Robert Angel and first published in 1985 by Seattle Games Inc. The game is played with teams with players trying to identify specific words from their teammates' drawings.-Objective:...

 and Scrabble

Scrabble

Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid. The words are formed across and down in crossword fashion and must appear in a standard dictionary. Official reference works provide a list...

. Despite such progress, written Dakota is not without its difficulties. The Pond brothers, Rev. Riggs, and Dr. Williamson were not the only missionaries documenting the Dakota language. Around the same time, missionaries in other Dakota bands were developing their own versions of the written language. Since the 1900s, professional linguists have been creating their own versions of the orthography

Orthography

The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...

. The Dakota have also been making modifications. “Having so many different writing systems is causing confusion, conflict between our [the Dakota] people, causing inconstancy in what is being taught to students, and making the sharing of instructional and other materials very difficult” (SICC).

Prior to the white man’s way of writing, the Dakota did have a writing system of their own: one of representational pictographs. In pictographic writing, a drawing represents exactly what it means. For example, a drawing of a dog literally meant a dog.
Palmer writes that,

“As a written language, it [pictographs] was practical enough that it allowed the Lakota to keep a record of years in their winter counts which can still be understood today, and it was in such common usage that pictographs were recognized and accepted by census officials in the 1880s, who would receive boards or hides adorned with the head of the household’s name depicted graphically” (pg. 34).

For the missionaries however, documenting the Bible through pictographs was impractical and presented significant challenges.

Comparative Table of Dakota and Lakota Orthographies
|-

IPA	Buechel and Manhart spelling (pronunciation)	Ullrich	Brandon University	Deloria and Boas	Dakota Mission	Rood and Taylor	Riggs	Williamson	University of Minnesota	White Hat
ʔ	´	´	ʾ	´	none	ʼ	´	´	´	none
a	a	a	a	a	a	a	a	a	a	a
aː	a (á)	á	a	a	a	a	a	a	a	a
ã	an, an' (aη)	aŋ	an̄	ą	an	ą	aŋ	aŋ	aŋ	aη
p~b	b	b	b	b	b	b	b	b	b	b
tʃ	c	č	c	c	c	č	ć	c	c	c̄
tʃʰ	c (c, c̔)	čh	ć	cʽ	c	čh	ć̣	c̣	c	ċ ¹
tʃʼ	c’	č’	c̦	c’	c	čʼ	ć	c	c’	ċ’ ¹
t~d	none	none	d	d	d	d	d	d	d	d
e~ɛ	e	e	e	e	e	e	e	e	e	e
eː~ɛː	e (é)	é	e	e	e	e	e	e	e	e
k~ɡ	g	g	g	g	g	g	g	g	g	g
ʁ~ɣ	g (ġ)	ǧ	ǥ	ġ	g	ǧ	ġ	ġ	g	ġ
h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h	h
χ	h̔	ȟ	ħ	ḣ	r	ȟ	ḣ	ḣ	ḣ	ḣ
χʔ~χʼ	h’ (h̔’)	ȟ’	ħ̦	ḣ’	r	ȟʼ	ḣ	ḣ	ḣ’	ḣ’
i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
iː	i (í)	í	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
ĩ	in, in' (iη)	iŋ	in̄	į	in	į	iŋ	iŋ	iŋ	iη
k	k (k, k̇)	k	k	k	k	k	k	k	k	k
kʰ~kˣ	k	kh	k̔	k‘	k	kh	k	k	ḳ	k
qˣ~kˠ	k (k̔)	kȟ	k̔	k‘	k	kh	k	k	ḳ	k̇
kʼ	k’	k’	ķ	k’	q	kʼ	ḳ	ḳ	k’	k’
l	l	l	none	l	none	l	l	l	none	l
lː	l´	none	none	none	none	none	none	none	none	none
m	m	m	m	m	m	m	m	m	m	m
n	n	n	n	n	n	n	n	n	n	n
ŋ	n	n	n	n	n	ň	n	n	n	n
o	o	o	o	o	o	o	o	o	o	o
oː	o (ó)	ó	o	o	o	o	o	o	o	o
õ~ũ	on, on' (oη)	uŋ	un̄	ų	on	ų	oŋ	oŋ	uŋ	uη
p	ṗ (p, ṗ)	p	p	p	p	p	p	p	p	p̄
pʰ	p	ph	p̔	p‘	p	ph	p	p	p̣	p
pˣ~pˠ	p (p̔)	pȟ	p̔	p‘	p	ph	p	p	p̣	ṗ
pʼ	p’	p’	p̦	p’	p	pʼ	p̣	p̣	p’	p’
s	s	s	s	s	s	s	s	s	s	s
sʼ	s’	s’	ș	s’	s	sʼ	s’	s’	s’	s’
ʃ	š	š	š	ṡ	x, ś	š	ś	ṡ	ṡ	ṡ ²
ʃʔ~ʃʼ	š’	š’	ș̌	ṡ’	x, ś	š	ś’	ṡ’	ṡ’	ṡ’ ²
t	t (t, ṫ)	t	t	t	t	t	t	t	t	t
tʰ	t	th	tʿ	tʽ	t	th	t	t	ṭ	t
tˣ~tˠ	t (t̔)	tȟ	tʿ	tʽ	t	th	t	t	ṭ	ṫ
tʼ	t’	t’	ţ	t’	t	tʼ	ṭ	ṭ	t’	t’
u	u	u	u	u	u	u	u	u	u	u
uː	u (ú)	ú	u	u	u	u	u	u	u	u
õ~ũ	un, un' (uη)	uŋ	un̄	ų	un	ų	uŋ	uŋ	uŋ	uη
w	w	w	w	w	w	w	w	w	w	w
j	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y	y
z	z	z	z	z	z	z	z	z	z	z
ʒ	j	ž	ž	z	j	ž	ź	ż	ż	j

¹ Saskatchewan uses c̀ for White Hat's ċ

² Saskatchewan uses s̀ for White Hat's ṡ

Sound system

See Lakota sound system

Lakota language

Lakota is a Siouan language spoken by the Lakota people of the Sioux tribes. While generally taught and considered by speakers as a separate language, Lakota is mutually understandable with the other two languages , and is considered by most linguists one of the three major varieties of the Sioux...

 and Dakota sound system

Dakota language

Dakota is a Siouan language spoken by the Dakota people of the Sioux tribes. Dakota is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the Lakota language.-Dialects:...

.

Morphology

Dakota is an agglutinating language. It features suffixes, prefixes, and infixes. Each affix has a specific rule in Dakota. For example, the suffix –pi is added to the verb to mark the plurality of an animate subject (Shaw, pg. 10). “With respect to number agreement for objects, only animate objects are marked, and these by the verbal prefix wicha-“(Shaw, pg. 11). Also, there is no gender agreement in Dakota.

Example of the use of –pi:

• 1. ma-khata ‘I am hot’ (I-hot)
• khata-pi ‘they are hot’ (0-hot-pl.)

Example of the use of wicha-

• 1. wa-kte ‘I kill him’ (0-I-kill)
• wicha-wa-kte ‘I kill them’ (them-I-kill)

(Shaw, pg. 12)
Infixes are rare in Dakota, but do exist when a statement features predicates requiring two “patients.”

Example of infixing:

• 1. iye-checa ‘to resemble’
• iye-ni-ma-checa ‘I resemble you’
• ‘you resemble me’
• 2. iskola ‘be as small as’
• i-ni-ma-skola ‘I am as small as you’
• ‘you are as small as I’

Syntax

Dakota has subject/object/ verb (SOV) word order. Along the same line, the language also has postpositions.
Examples of word order:

• 1. wichasta-g wax aksica-g kte
• (man-DET bear-DET kill)
• ‘the man killed the bear’
• 2. wax aksicas-g wichasta-g kte
• (bear-DET man-DET kill)
• ‘the bear killed the man’

(Shaw, pg. 10)

According to Shaw, word order exemplifies grammatical relations.

In Dakota, the verb is the most important part of the sentence. There are many verb forms in Dakota, although they are “dichotomized into a stative-active classification, with the active verbs being further subcategorized as transitive or intransitive” (Shaw, pg. 11). Some examples of this are:

• 1. stative:
• ma-khata ‘I am hot’ (I-hot)
• ni-khata ‘you are hot’ (you-hot)
• khata ‘he/she/it is hot’ (0-hot)
• u-khata ‘we (you and I) are hot’ (we-hot)
• u-khata-pi ‘we (excl. or pl) are hot’ (we-hot-pl.)
• ni-khata-pi ‘you (pl.) are hot’ (you-hot-pl.)
• khata-pi ‘they are hot’ (0-hot-pl.)

• 2. active intransitive
• wa-hi ‘I arrive (coming)’ (I-arrive)
• ya-hi ‘you arrive’ (you-arrive)
• hi ‘he arrives’
• u-hi ‘we (you and I) arrive’
• u-hi-pi ‘we (excl. or pl.) arrive’
• ya-hi-pi ‘you (pl.) arrive’
• hi-pi ‘they arrive’

• 3. active transitive
• wa-kte ‘I kill him’ (0-I-kill)
• wicha-wa-kte ‘I kill them’ (them-I-kill)
• chi-kte ‘I kill you’ (I-you (portmanteau)- kill)
• ya-kte ‘you kill him’ (0-you-kill)
• wicha-ya-kte ‘you kill them’ (them- you-kill)
• wicha-ya-kte-pi ‘you (pl.) kill them’
• ma-ya-kte ‘you kill me’ (me-you-kill)
• u-ya-kte-pi ‘you kill us’ (we-you-kill-pl.)
• ma-ktea ‘he kills me’ (0-me-kill-pl.)
• ni-kte-pi ‘they kill you’ (0-you-kill-pl.)
• u-ni-kte-pi ‘we kill you’ (we-you-kill-pl.)
• wicha-u-kte ‘we (you and I) kill them’ (them-we-kill)

(Shaw, pgs. 11-12)

The phonology, morphology, and syntax of Dakota are very complex. There are a number of broad rules that become more and more specific as they are more closely examined. The components of the language become somewhat confusing and more difficult to study as more sources are examined, as each scholar has a somewhat different opinion on the basic characteristics of the language.

External links

• Lakota Language FORUM
• Our Languages: Dakota, Nakota, Lakota (Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre)
• Texts in Dakota and Lakota