Lakota phonology

Vowels

Lakota has five oral vowels, /i e a o u/, and three nasal vowels, /ĩ ã ũ/ (phonetically [ɪ̃ ə̃ ʊ̃]). Lakota /e/ and /o/ are said to be more open than the corresponding cardinal vowels, perhaps closer to [ɛ] and [ɔ]. Orthographically, the nasal vowels are written with a following ⟨ƞ⟩, ⟨ŋ⟩, or ⟨n⟩; historically, these were written with ogoneks underneath, ⟨į ą ų⟩. No syllables end with consonantal /n/.

		Front		Central		Back
		unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded
Close/High	oral	i	y	ɨ			u
	nasal	ĩ		ɨ̃			ũ
Near-close	oral	ɪ	ʏ				ʊ
	nasal	ɪ̃					ʊ̃
Mid	oral	e	ø	ə			o
	nasal	ẽ		ə̃			õ
Open-mid		ɛ				ʌ	ɔ
Open/Low	oral	æ		a		ɑ	ɒ
	nasal			ã		ɑ̃

A neutral vowel (schwa) is automatically inserted between certain consonants, e.g. into the pairs ⟨gl⟩, ⟨bl⟩ and ⟨gm⟩. So the clan name written phonemically as ⟨Oglala⟩ has become the place name Ogallala.

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasals		m [m]		n [n]	ɲ [ɲ]	ŋ [ŋ]	q [ɴ]
Plosives and affricates	voiceless	p [p]	t [t]		č [tʃ]	k [k]		’ [ʔ]
	voiced	b [b]			r [dʒ]	g [ɡ]
	aspirated	ph [pʰ] / pȟ [pˣ]	th [tʰ] / tȟ [tˣ]		čh [tʃʰ]	kh [kʰ] / kȟ [kˣ]
	ejective	p’ [pʼ]	t’ [tʼ]		č’ [tʃʼ]	k’ [kʼ]
Fricative	voiceless	f [ɸ]	c [θ]	s [s]	š [ʃ]	x [x]	ȟ [χ]
	voiced	v [β]	j [ð]	z [z]	ž [ʒ]	ɣ [ɣ]	ǧ [ʁ]
	ejective	f’ [ɸʼ]	c’ [θʼ]	s’ [sʼ]	š’ [ʃʼ]	x’ [xʼ]	ȟ’ [χʼ]
Approximant	central	w [w]			y [j]	d [ɰ]		h [h]
	lateral			l [l]	ł [ʎ]	ð [ʟ]

The voiced uvular fricative /ʁ/ becomes a uvular trill ([ʀ]) before /i/ and in fast speech it is often realized as a voiced velar fricative [ɣ]. The voiceless aspirated plosives have two allophonic variants each: those with a delay in voicing ([pʰ tʰ kʰ]), and those with velar friction ([pˣ tˣ kˣ]), which occur before /a/, /ã/, /o/, /ĩ/, and /ũ/ (thus, lakhóta, /laˈkʰota/ is phonetically [laˈkˣota]). For some speakers, there is a phonemic distinction between the two, and both occur before /e/. No such variation occurs for the affricate /tʃʰ/. Some orthographies mark this distinction; others do not. The uvular fricatives /χ/ and /ʁ/ are commonly spelled ⟨ȟ⟩ and ⟨ǧ⟩.

All monomorphemic words have one vowel which carries primary stress and has a higher tone than all other vowels in the word. This is generally the vowel of the second syllable of the word, but often the first syllable can be stressed, and occasionally other syllables as well. Stress is generally indicated with an acute accent: ⟨á⟩, etc. Compound words will have stressed vowels in each component; proper spelling will write compounds with a hyphen. Thus máza-ská, literally "metal-white", i.e. "silver; money" has two stressed vowels, the first a in each component. If it were written without the hyphen, as mazaska, it would imply a single main stress.

Orthography

The majority of educational institutions across Lakota country adopted the writing system of the New Lakota Dictionary as the standard orthography. It is used, among other places, at Sitting Bull College, Oglala Lakota College, by all schools of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, by the majority of teachers of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, and in almost all schools on Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations.. Sinte Gleska University is said to have been using an orthography developed by Albert White Hat, but apart from one elementary level textbook, no literature, learning materials, or dictionaries have been developed with this orthography. The spelling system is not used by Sinte Gleska University language instructors during classes. Historically several orthographies as well as ad hoc spelling have been used to write the Lakota language.

The spelling system of the New Lakota Dictionary is presented below:

The vowels are a, e, i, o, u; nasal vowels are aŋ, iŋ, uŋ. Pitch accent is marked with an acute accent: á, é, í, ó, ú, áŋ, íŋ, úŋ on stressed vowels (which receive a higher tone than non-stressed ones)

The following consonants approximate their IPA values: b, g, h, k, l, m, n, ŋ, p, s, t, w, z. Y has its English value of /j/. An apostrophe, ’, is used for the glottal stop.

A caron is used for sounds, other than /ŋ/, which are not written with Latin letters in the IPA: č /tʃ/, ǧ /ʁ/, ȟ /χ/, š /ʃ/, ž /ʒ/. Aspirates are written with h: čh, kh, ph, th, and velar frication with ȟ: kȟ, pȟ, tȟ. Ejectives are written with an apostrophe: č’, ȟ’, k’, p’, s’, š’, t’‌.

The spelling used in modern popular texts is often written without diacritics. Besides failing to mark stress, this also results in the confusion of numerous consonants: /s/ and /ʃ/ are both written s, /h/ and /χ/ are both written h, and the aspirate stops are written like the unaspirates, as p, t, c, k.

Alphabet

Standard Lakota Orthography, as used by the majority of schools, is in principle phonemic, which means that each character (grapheme) represents one distinctive sound (phoneme), except for the distinction between glottal and velar aspiration, which is treated phonetically.

Lakota alphabet

Letter	Name of the letter	Usual phonetic value (IPA)
A a	a	[a]
Aŋ aŋ	aŋ	[ə̃]
B b	be	[b]
Č č	ču	[tʃ]
Čh čh	čhi	[tʃʰ]
Č’ č’	č’ó	[tʃʼ]
E e	e	[ɛ]
G g	gli	[ɡ]
Ǧ ǧ	ǧu	[ʁ] / [ʀ]
H h	ha	[h]
Ȟ ȟ	ȟe	[χ]
I i	i	[ɪ]
Iŋ iŋ	iŋ	[ɪ̃]
K k	ku	[k]
Kh kh	khi	[kʰ]
Kȟ kȟ	kȟa	[kˣ]
K’ k’	k’o	[kʼ]
L l	la	[l]
M m	ma	[m]
N n	na	[n]
O o	o	[ɔ]
P p	pu	[p]
Ph ph	phi	[pʰ]
Pȟ pȟ	pȟa	[pˣ]
P’ p’	p’o	[pʼ]
S s	sa	[s]
Š š	še	[ʃ]
T t	tu	[t]
Th th	thi	[tʰ]
Tȟ tȟ	tȟa	[tˣ]
T’ t’	t’o	[tʼ]
U u	u	[ʊ]
Uŋ uŋ	uŋ	[ʊ̃]
W w	wa	[w]
Y y	ya	[j]
Z z	za	[z]
Ž ž	že	[ʒ]
’	khéze	[ʔ]

All digraphs (i.e. characters created by two letters, such as kh, kȟ, k’) are treated as groups of individual letters in alphabetization. Thus for example the word čhíŋ precedes čónala in a dictionary.

Phonological processes

A common phonological process which occurs in rapid speech is vowel contraction, which generally results from the loss of an intervocalic glide. Vowel contraction results in phonetic long vowels (phonemically a sequence of two identical vowels), with falling pitch if the first underlying vowel is stressed, and rising pitch if the second underlying vowel is stressed: kê: (falling tone), "he said that", from kéye; hǎ:pi (rising tone), "clothing", from hayápi. If one of the vowels is nasalized, the resulting long vowel is also nasalized: čhaŋ̌:pi, "sugar", from čhaŋháŋpi.

When two vowels of unequal height contract, or when feature contrasts exist between the vowels and the glide, two new phonetic vowels, [æː] and [ɔː], result: iyæ̂:, "he left for there", from iyáye; mitȟa:, "it's mine", from mitȟáwa.

The plural enclitic =pi is frequently changed in rapid speech when preceding the enclitics =kte, =kiŋ, =kštó, or =na. If the vowel preceding =pi is high/open, =pi becomes [u]; if the vowel is non-high (mid or closed), =pi becomes [o] (if the preceding vowel is nasalized, then the resulting vowel is also nasalized): hi=pi=kte, "they will arrive here", [hiukte]; yatkáŋ=pi=na, "they drank it and...", [jatkə̃õna].

Lakota also exhibits some traces of sound symbolism among fricatives, where the point of articulation changes to reflect intensity: zí, "it's yellow", ží, "it's tawny", ǧí, "it's brown". (Compare with the similar examples in Mandan.)

External links

• Lakota language