Books & Media
Learning Materials
Browse this page to learn more about the books, videos and audio materials that you can use to learn the Lakota language. LLC’s wide variety of language materials and media resources allow you to create their own course of study regardless of age or experience.
Winner of the 2023 Gold IBPA Benjamin Franklin Award
The New Lakota Dictionary (NLD) is the largest and most comprehensive Lakota Language dictionary currently available. The user-friendly layout allows you to look up words in Lakota and English. You can reliably find words in the consistent orthography and learn many aspects of grammar, and pronunciation throughout.
Features include:
- Over 41,000 entries (21,000 more than the first edition).
- More than 50,000 example sentences, references, usage notes and collections.
- 25,000 entries that have not been previously documented in any other Lakota dictionary.
- A consistent orthography that reliably reflects pronunciation.
- Example sentences now include a refined use of commas, hyphens, and ages to reflect compounding, subordination and intonation.
- Refreshed grammar section that covers new discovers in Lakota morphology and syntax.
- Over 400 native speakers involved in its development and review
- Fun to use and explore
- An excellent self-study investment
Also available as desktop software for Windows and Mac, as well on mobile for iOS and Android.
The New Lakota Dictionary would not exist without the hard work and contributions of so many people. Read our acknowledgments of the incredible individuals who made this possible here.
“The New Lakota Dictionary is a great, great improvement over all the other dictionaries. It has words that are in common usage today and it lays out all the different ways a word can be used. I write Lakota the way it is written in the Dictionary, and find that it’s very easy to read”
– Ben Black Bear, Jr., Leading Lakota language scholar from the Sičháŋǧu Oyáŋke (Rosebud Nation)
“This marvelous dictionary may help keep the number of (Lakota) speakers from falling. It gathers over 41,000 words and illustrates them with more than 50,000 sentences, usage notes and collocations.”
– John McWhorter, New York Times
When paired with the NLD the Lakota Grammar Handbook offers the most comprehensive learning experience designed to increase grammar proficiency. Sentences illustrate various areas of grammar, and supports anyone seeking to learn from authentic narratives and dialogs recorded from Lakota speakers.
This rich guide features:
- 2 books in 1: a self-study reference grammar and a grammar practice workbook
- Nearly 19,000 sentences (7,309 example sentences and 11,663 practice sentences)
- Descriptions of numerous grammatical constructions.
- Answer key for the exercises
- Narratives, discussions and more!
Lakhótiya Wóglaka Po! – Speak Lakota! Level 1 – 5 Textbooks feature lessons designed to increase in comfort and helps learners achieve Lakota language proficiency as they work through these lessons. While these textbooks are designed for the classroom they are also beneficial for language learners at any age.
Are you an educator looking to teach Lakota in your school? We can help develop a program to best suit the needs of your school, with a variety of classroom materials including teaching guides and flashcards.
You’ll find an extensive series of original picture books that help learners to establish basic vocabulary and reinforce their knowledge of the language. Complete with original illustrations and detailed glossaries, these picture books are a vital tool for beginners and advanced learners alike!
Visit the LLC bookstore to browse our full selection of original picture books!
Visit the LLC YouTube channel to hear Lakota speakers read selected books.
Choose from the ABC Coloring Book or the Lakota Word Search books. These interactive activity books allow you to look at language from a different perspective. The coloring book is a great activity book for the children, while the word search is great for more advanced learners.
The Lakota Berenstain Bears Project is a joint venture of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Lakota Language Consortium, with the goal of bringing the Lakota language to family television sets across all Lakota-speaking communities in North and South Dakota, and well beyond.
Produced and distributed with the permission of Berenstain Enterprises, Inc., Nelvana Limited and PBS (Public Broadcasting System), this 20-episode Lakota language edition of the Berenstain Bears is a first of its kind – the first Native American language cartoon series EVER.
Voices of the characters are all from the Lakota-speaking Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Pine Ridge, and Rosebud communities of North and South Dakota, and reflect all local dialects of the language.
Watch the entire series on the LLC Youtube, or order the DVD from the LLC Store.
Hearing speakers using the language is an important part of language acquisition. The audio series is a beginner’s course on conversational Lakota. Designed with adult self-learners in mind, the dialogues and scenarios range from common greetings, kinship terms, down to household items.
- Volume 1 – 10 hours of audio that covers basic introductions, places, pronunciation and other beginner’s conversation topics.
- Volume 2 – Over 12 hours of audio that builds on Volume 1. This series covers meal time, coming and going, and many everyday conversational phrases.
Volume 1 is available on CD in the LLC Bookstore, and you can listen to both volumes via streaming on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, or Youtube Music!
Children’s Songs Collection
These collections feature Lakota children’s songs including favorites such as: the Alphabet Song, BINGO, Days of the Week, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, and many more. Great for learning in the classroom and at home, you can find all three volumes in the LLC Bookstore.
Language revitalization depends on creating print, online, and app resources for learners. If you are interested in learning more about our digital media resources click here.
