# A question on the Lakota (Sioux) language. . . **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 8, 2010, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-on-the-lakota-sioux-language/528111 "2010-02-08T04:14:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-on-the-lakota-sioux-language/528111/21 "2010-02-09T21:10:38Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > I dunno; I suspect that example would be better parsed as an SVO [null-subject](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_subject) sentence with an extraposed appositive at the end. Interesting. It certainly seems that way when translated into English, but in Mexican Spanish it’s not always used that way. When it _is_ used the way you describe, the subject is given stronger intonation, just as in English. But much of the time, it _isn’t_ given stronger intonation, and really does feel _obligatory_, not optional. (The pdf I cited for Nava gets into intonation as well as word order.) ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-on-the-lakota-sioux-language/528111/22 "2010-02-09T21:11:27Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Both in Spanish and French it is very frequent to elide the subject: you don’t need to specify it, because the verbal form is detailed enough to make the subject easy to guess. Est-ce qu’on vraiment ne dit pas le sujet en Francaise? Je ne parle pas bien, mais j’ai appris qu’on dit normalment le suject; ce n’est pas le meme de Espanol. But I believe it is true that both Spanish and French have subject-verb-object as standard, but often use reflexive constructions to put the object before the verb. (“J’aime Paris” = I love Paris, but “Je t’aime” = I love you) ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-on-the-lakota-sioux-language/528111/23 "2010-02-09T21:49:56Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > Est-ce qu’on vraiment ne dit pas le sujet en Francaise? Je ne parle pas bien, mais j’ai appris qu’on dit normalment le suject; ce n’est pas le meme de Espanol. > > But I believe it is true that both Spanish and French have subject-verb-object as standard, but often use reflexive constructions to put the object before the verb. > > (“J’aime Paris” = I love Paris, but “Je t’aime” = I love you) Cork/oak: you are correct. French is like Engish (and unlike Spanish) in this regard; you usually _do_ have to state the subject. If French were just _written_, it would probably be unnecessary, since written French has almost as many distinguishable verb case endings as Spanish; BUT, _spoken_ French, of course, pronounces many of these case endings the same, due to the loss of spoken final consonants (in most situations). So, again, in French, you have to state the subject after all, to avoid ambiguity – just like in English. And as for “standard” word order, the word “canonical” is used in the research paper I cited, I think because the word “standard” implies the “right” or “most common” way, when it may be neither, at least in the spoken variety of the language. As for Lakota, who knows? ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-on-the-lakota-sioux-language/528111/24 "2010-02-09T21:57:30Z")
[Enclitic particles in Lakota](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakota_language#Enclitics), from a Wikipedia article, may help to clarify usage. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-on-the-lakota-sioux-language/528111/25 "2010-02-09T22:24:50Z")
There is a good transcript of the Lakota [here](http://movie.subtitlr.com/subtitle/show/54090). Unfortunately, it is embedded in the Romanian-language transcript of the entire movie. The key Sioux lines I found (repeated with variation in the text) are: Lakota keywakte ni la pe sni caheun. … Teca eya ob ni kte ki lena wanietu ota wicisanm iye akicita opa keye. … Peta ki oblaye el ti. … Sungmanitutonika Ob Waci miye yelo. … Washte yelo. … - Wa zhi. Nu, nu, nu. Ah ! Tatanka mare. Apologies if any of these are actually Romanian; I was searching the text by non-Romanian-looking combinations of letters. In any case, that “Washte yelo” shows up [here](http://www.phrasebase.com/archive/lakhota/lesson3.html) as “I am well” for a male speaker; for a female speaker it’s Waste ksto. On that page “waste” is pronounced “wash-te”; I have no idea if s = /ʃ/ in the Lakota orthography or if it’s just a pain to type [š] on a webpage. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2010, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-on-the-lakota-sioux-language/528111/26 "2010-02-09T23:36:17Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I love the goddamned Dope. Ditto. I wanted to know what I thought was _one simple word_, and I get a discussion bearing into things I didn’t even know existed. Serves me right. . . 😃 Tripler Now a more learn-ed dude. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-question-on-the-lakota-sioux-language/528111.md?page=1)