Preservation of Lakota Language: Translation of Songs and Speeches

Jurgita Saltanaviciute, University at Oklahoma

Project Details:

Field Trip Grant. Duration: 2005-2006. £9,694

Project Summary:

The Lakota language is an endangered Native American language still spoken in North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, and Minnesota. At the end of the twentieth century Lakota was spoken by 6,000 people, however, both statistic and field observations show a rapid decrease in the numbers of speakers. The project is a collaborative effort between Lakota Studies faculty at Sinte Gleska University and a linguistic anthropologist at the University of Oklahoma. The goals of the project are to transcribe, translate, and interpret Lakota songs and speeches from three collections which were recorded in the first half of the twentieth century. This project is the first in a sequence of projects at Sinte Gleska University to preserve the Lakota language which will result in publications of Lakota language resources and cultural studies. Visit http://www.sitekreator.com/jurga/projects.html for further information.