Difference between revisions of "Lakota/Grammar"

Revision as of 23:14, 17 February 2022

This is a general documentation of Lakota Grammar.

Sources include Lakota Basic Structures, the Lakota language Wikipedia and David V Kaufmann's Lakota Grammar Handbook.

Parts of Speech

Open Class

Nouns

Nouns <n> in Lakota appear in <subj><obj><v> order.

• pȟasù<n> ↔ (nose)
• tȟahù<n> ↔ (neck)
• pȟanȟté<n> ↔ (forehead)
• igmú<n> ↔ (cat)
• šún<n> ↔ (dog)
• maká<n> ↔ (skunk)
• čhuŋwíyapehe - grapes (plural)
• tȟaspáŋ - apple
• zíškopela - banana
• wažúšteča - strawberry
• bló - potato
• pšíŋ - onion

Verbs

Verbs <v> are an essential part of the Lakota language in that they are the only part of speech necessary in forming a sentence.

• máni<v><inf> ↔ (to walk)
• mawáni<v><inf><inf><sg> ↔ (to walk)
• wótA<v><inf> ↔ (to eat)
• wáte<v><inf><inf><sg> ↔ (to eat)
• ičú<v><inf> ↔ (to take)
• iwáču<v><inf><inf><sg> ↔ (to take)
• k'ú<v><inf> ↔ (to give to)
• wak'ú<v><inf><inf><sg> ↔ (to give to)

Adverbs

• "adjectives" do not seem to exist and neither do "adverbs" ; the syntactical structure is better described as "topic and comment."

Closed Class

Postpositions

Lakota uses postpositions <post> rather than prepositions; they work in a similar way to English prepositions though they follow their noun complement. Adpositions occur after the head <n>.

• mas'óphiye<n> (store) ↔ mas'óphiye él<n><post> (at the store)
• Wówapi kiŋ wáglutapi kiŋ akáŋl<post> yaŋké. The book is sitting on the table.
• Wóžuha kiŋ oyúŋke kiŋ oȟláthe<post> yaŋké. The bag is sitting under the bed.
• Šiyútakaŋ kiŋ akáŋwowapi kiŋ isákhib<post> yaŋké. The laptop is sitting beside the desk.
• Wíčazo kiŋ oákaŋke kiŋ itȟókab<post> yaŋké. The pencil is sitting in front of the chair.

Conjunctions

• čhaŋké<cnjcoo> ↔ (and)
• yuŋkȟáŋ<cnjcoo> ↔ (and)
• k’éyaš<cnjcoo> ↔ (but)
• na<cnjcoo> ↔ (joins nouns/phrases)

Articles

Demonstratives

There are nine demonstratives <dem> in Lakota, and they can function as either determiners <det> or pronouns <prn>.