Lakota Audio Series 2: A Practical Conversation Course

By Lakota Language Consortium

This is the second volume of the Lakota Audio Series. It is designed primarily for beginner learners, but it will be useful to all students of Lakota who haven't previously learned from an audio-based material or who haven't had a chance to learn from a structured and sequenced learning material.

How many units and when?
We recommend that you listen to one or two new units every day.
If most of the material is new to you, we don't recommend listening to more than two units a day. As you gain more confidence, you can listen to more new units a day. Still, it is always advisable to use manageable learning portions.
Before starting a new unit, always review the units you learned during the previous learning session.
If you listen to new units in the morning, you can review them in the evening or the next day.
If you listen to new units in the afternoon or evening, review them the following day.
Do your best to have a learning session every day or at least five times a week. If you have a learning session only once or twice a week, you will not achieve much, even if you spend half a day learning. By listening to two new activities and reviewing two previous activities, you will spend an average of 20-30 minutes of learning every day.
It is useful to review the previous material once in a week or two. When reviewing, you can listen to as many units as you find comfortable.

How to listen?
Listen to the English sentence and its Lakota translation. Repeat the Lakota translation aloud. Repeating aloud is one of the most important aspects of this learning method. If the Lakota sentence is repeated, then you, too, should say it twice.
If you listen to an activity for the first time, don't try to guess or anticipate the Lakota sentences before you hear them.
If you are reviewing or listening to a review activity, always try to say the Lakota sentences before hearing them from the native speaker. If you didn't say a sentence correctly, repeat it aloud after the native speaker.

What is the content of activities?
Every activity introduces one or two patterns (sentence patterns, conjugation patterns, word usages, or other types of patterns).
Each pattern is repeated numerous times within an activity. This repetitive Nature enables you to internalize the pattern. Repeating the sentences allows you to drill the introduced pattern.
Each pattern is introduced in one unit and recycled or reviewed in one or more subsequential units. This reinforces your knowledge of the patterns.
The pause before each Lakota sentence allows you to say the Lakota sentence before hearing it from the Lakota speaker (in cases when you
are reviewing or when you can anticipate the recurring pattern).
Vocabulary is sometimes introduced in word lists, and it is also gradually added in the repetitive pattern activities.
The remarks about grammar that are sometimes provided at the beginning or end of activities are designed to help you understand the patterns. Still, they are not meant to be memorized. It is always useful to study the examples rather than understand the patterns only on the grammar description.
Please note that the English versions of the example sentences may not always sound entirely natural because they are primarily designed to bring the learner closer to the Lakota sentence structure and show the grammatical and semantic features expressed in Lakota but not always shown in English.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781941461358

Book preview

Disc 1

1. Food vocabulary

First learn some of the basic vocabulary for food.

2. Talking about food (uncountable) etáŋ, eyá, and tákuni (overview of plural indefinite articles)

3. The verb yútA (talking about food and eating)

This unit will introduce you to the verb yútA to eat something. It conjugates with the Class I affixes wa- and ya-, but its conjugation is slightly irregular. To learn and practice these verbs, listen and repeat.

Review the conjugation of the verb yútA:

4. Review of the verb yútA

5. The verb wótA I. – to eat

Like yútA the verb wótA is somewhat irregular in its conjugation. This activity will teach you how to use it.

6. Wóta (II.) (some more usage)

7. yútA and wótA

As you saw in the previous activities yútA means to eat something and so it always refers to a meal or food item. The verb wótA on the other hand means to eat and has no reference to any food item. This distinction is important so let’s practice it a bit more.

8. Fruits and vegetables.

9. The verb tȟebyÁ

Another verb that refers to eating is tȟebyÁ. While yútA refers to the process of eating, tȟebyÁ means to have eaten it up. To learn the difference, listen and repeat.

10. Drinks - vocabulary

11. Talking about drinks II.

Note that the indefinite article is optional with drinks because liquids are uncountable.

12. Talking about drinks - sentences