Lakhota Linguist Training Project
Project Goals: To select and train two-three young Lakhota individuals as linguists to work on language projects with the Lakhota tribe. The individuals will work with fluent elders to improve their linguistic abililty, while also earning an MA in linguistics at the University of Colorado. During the summer, they will document Lakhota language, producing a database of native conversation at the end of the project.
Details: The project began in Fall, 2007. It was funded by a four-year grant from the National Sciences Foundation/Documenting Endangered Languages Program. It was completed in spring, 2010.
Contact: David Rood
Comparative Siouan Dictionary Project
Project Goals: The reconstruction of the sound system and much of the vocabulary of Proto-Siouan.
Details: A long-term project started in 1989. Work that remains includes final editing for consistency, formatting, and the preparation of some introductory essays. We foresee eventual availability in both book and electronic form. The project is not currently funded.
Contact: David Rood
Lakhota Project
Project Goals: Set of materials for the teaching of Lakhota as a foreign language Details: Available for sale (in printed form only).
Details: This project is complete. The materials area available at the Lakhota Project website.
Contact: Lakhota Project website
The Siouan Languages Archives
A machine-readable data base of texts, grammars, and dictionaries in various Siouan languages.
Details: Prepared in the 1970s. The material needs to be converted to a form which will make it more widely available for use on current computers, but it remains accessible for interested researchers. Dr. Rood is currently working with a PhD student in computer sciences to convert this database to a more usable format, potentially for posting on the web.
Contact: David Rood
Lakhota Grammar Project
Project goals: The outcome will be a complex grammar of Lakota.
Details: The project started in 2002. The grammar will be based both on text analyses of modern Lakota and elicited data from speakers from the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations. The project is funded by grants from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the School of Oriental and African Studies (Univ. of London). Electronic data will be made available.
Contact: Regina Pustet
Publications
Rood, David and Regina Pustet. 2008. "Argument Suppression in Lakhota." Proceedings of the Conference on Active-Stative Languages, Leipzig, 2005.
Rood, David. 2003. "Two Lakhota Locatives and the role of introspection in linguistic analysis." In Seibert and Shay, eds. Motion, Direction and Location in Language, Amsterdam: John Benjamins: 255-58.
Rood, David. 2002. "If Macro-Siouan is Real, How will you Explain this?" In Cavota, ed. The Linguist's Linguist, Ramer: Lincom Europa.
Rood, David and John Koontz. 2002. "The Comparative Siouan Dictionary." In Frawley, Hill and Munro, eds. Making Dictionaries: Preserving Indigenous Languages of the Americas, Berkeley: California: 259-81.
Rood, David. 2001. "Lakota." In Garry and Rubino, eds. Facts about the World's Major Languages. W.H. Wilson Co.: 404-8.