Category: 2014

The time is almost here – the Lakota Audio Series: A Practical Conversational Course Vol. 1 will begin shipping on November 3rd.

This is the first time a standalone set of instructional CDs will be available for language learners to study conversational Lakota on their own.

Greetings and polite kinship questions are just the simpler side of what you will be able to learn from this Audio Series. It gets a lot more in-depth the further you go – for instance, talking about cars, about going to a dance, who heard someone say something, the ordinary commands of a day in the life, telling each other what to do, are all in this 10-hour sequence of lessons.

Catch this example:

 

(From Unit 9)

 Whether studying in your bedroom or on your daily commute, you will be immersed in Lakota language in a way that creates a deep intuitive grasp of the language and establishes a strong base for fluency.

Meet Your Instructors

 

BEN BLACK BEAR, JR., is a leading expert on Lakota language. He is the founder of the Lakota studies Program at Siŋté Glešká University and currently heads the Lakota studies Program at St. Francis Mission School in St. Francis, SD. He is Sičháŋǧu Lakȟóta.

IRIS EAGLE CHASING is a Lakota language teacher at Takini School in Howes, SD, on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation. A grandmother and dedicated language activist, she has recorded female-voice Lakota speech for the New Lakota dictionary-Online Audio project.

Check it out at the LLC Bookstore and order yours today!

 

 

It’s getting dark early and what is there to do inside the house? Let Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe (the Compassionate Bear Family, a.k.a. the Berenstain Bears) help you with your Lakota language study while you watch some cartoons.

TOO MUCH TV

When Mama puts a ban on television watching for one whole week, the cubs initially go into hysterics. As the week unfolds, Brother, Sister and Papa too, find that their interests extend well beyond the television set. They grow to realize just how entertaining the great
outdoors and other “simple” pleasures can be.

Each Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe episode comes with free extras for download: a complete script in Lakota, a vocabulary sheet with English translations, and comprehension questions (in Lakota) to check your understanding of the action.

Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe is a co-production of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Lakota Language Consortium, Berenstain Enterprises and Nelvana Limited. Episodes were first broadcast in 2011 on Prairie Public Television.

It’s amazing where you can find a ghost, if you’re brave enough to look. Let Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe (the Compassionate Bear Family, a.k.a. the Berenstain Bears) help you with your Lakota language study in this spooky family adventure.

THE HAUNTED LIGHTHOUSE

When the Bear Family vacations in an old lighthouse rendered obsolete by modern technology, they discover that it’s rumored to be haunted. Although the cubs encounter mysterious sights and sounds, they’re anything but spooked. In fact Brother and Sister actively pursue the clues to the point where they not only reveal the ’ghost’ but come up with a way to give new life to the old lighthouse as well as the old lighthouse keeper.

Each Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe episode comes with free extras for download: a complete script in Lakota, a vocabulary sheet with English translations, and comprehension questions (in Lakota) to check your understanding of the action.

Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe is a co-production of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Lakota Language Consortium, Berenstain Enterprises and Nelvana Limited. Episodes were first broadcast in 2011 on Prairie Public Television.

The Lakota-Dakota Language Summit had a celebratory end with the LLC award ceremony for learning achievements. The ceremony was very respectful and a special honoring song was sung.

The schools’ honors were based on comparison of learning assessment test scores from Fall 2013 and Spring 2014. Recognition was given for highest achievement and best improvement in the test scores.

Elementary schools

Most Improved — Cheyenne-Eagle Butte Early Elementary (Cheyenne River)

Highest Achieved — Cheyenne-Eagle Butte Early Elementary (Cheyenne River)

 

Junior High schools

Most Improved — Rock Creek Grant School (Standing Rock)

Highest Achieved — Red Shirt School (Hermosa, SD, Shannon County)

 

High Schools

Most Improved – Red Cloud High School (Pine Ridge)

Highest Achieved — Red Cloud High School (Pine Ridge)

 

Ben Black Bear, Jr. was the MC, and he emphasized for the audience how important it is to recognize the good work being done in Lakota Country to teach the Lakota language.

Teaching is so often unsung, invisible work – and yet it is front line of the language revitalization movement. LLC wants this to change!  We hope that these awards turn attention around towards honoring students, teachers and schools for bringing the language back.

Wóphila to everyone who worked so hard to make the 7th Annual Lakota-Dakota Language Summit so memorable and exciting!

Tusweca Tiospaye, the Lakota-Dakota Language Summit’s organizers, added a special workshop to do any language warrior proud: an intense, 16-hour marathon of language study, in the class Lakota/Dakota Language for Beginners. The class was developed and planned by Sunshine Archambault Carlow and Nacole Walker of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Education Department. Sunshine is the Education Manager and Nacole is the Language Education Coordinator for Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

This breakout session saw roughly twenty people commit to two days of learning of the basics of Lakota/Dakota, including pronunciation and how to use a Lakota/Dakota dictionary for self-study.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Education Department loaned the participants dictionaries for practice.

Sunshine Archambault Carlow and Nacole Walker did warrior duty, leading the class over two eight-hour days and modeling the best in second-language instruction.

Teachers from around Lakota Country, who weren’t able to take the full class, nevertheless sat in to audit parts of it as a refresher. Many told LLC booth staff that Nacole and Sunshine’s presentation gave them lots of ideas for their own work.

By all accounts this was a fantastic course, a highly valuable workshop that generated tons of positive feedback and buzz.  Kudos to the workshop staff and participants!

More in Part III!

It was a bustling weekend at the 7^th annual Lakota-Dakota Language Summit in Rapid City, SD, October 10-12! The location had moved to the Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn, to be near the Black Hills Powwow going on in the Civic Center next door. The convergence of the two events meant that the Summit had more than 1,000 visitors flowing through the halls.

LLC’s booth display was once again a hive of buzzing excitement – hundreds of visitors stopped by to scope out the new NLD-Pro desktop dictionary and the Lakota Audio Series, and pick up fun takeaways like “Language Warrior” t-shirts, bumper stickers and pens.

We had the honor of meeting teachers from all over Lakota country, as well as Tribal leaders, spiritual leaders, people from tribes in Canada and Montana, and even Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills.

The new “Language Warrior” theme really struck a powerful note for attendees.

The booth banners, the t-shirts and bumper stickers were popular with young and old.

T-shirts and bumper stickers can be ordered here if you want to show your own Language Warrior pride!

More in Part II!

Our last post introduced you to the NLD-Pro, an interactive version of the New Lakota Dictionary that can be downloaded to your computer’s desktop. (Bye-bye, wi-fi!) Here is another new product coming from LLC this Fall, that takes Lakota language study into new realms.

Lakota Audio Series

This is a 10-CD set that provides more than 10 hours of instruction in conversational Lakota – using the same lesson structures and repetition and review techniques found in popular self-instruction systems like Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone. It is provided for those self-study learners who want to practice the language while driving, and want to hear Lakota used for ordinary social situations.

 “Will you dance with me?”

is one of the dialogue phrases.

 

 

The Audio Series lessons provide dialogues, pronunciation and vocabulary guides, and even explanation and demonstration of those Lakota things that sound impossible at first — the stative verb and the ablaut.

The Series is spoken by fluent first-language elders Ben Black Bear, Jr. and Iris Eagle Chasing. Ms. Eagle Chasing is a Lakota language teacher at Takini School in Howes, SD (Cheyenne River) and Mr. Black Bear is the Director of Lakota Studies at St. Francis Mission School in St. Francis, SD (Rosebud). You might recognize Mr. Black Bear’s voice from the Lakȟótiya Wóglaka Po! Speak Lakota! Audio CDs, and as the voice of Papa Bear in the Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe (Lakota Berenstain Bears) cartoon series.

The Audio Series is available now for pre-order, and shipping is slate to begin in November.

Keeping the Lakota language at your side has never been easier. Two new products being released by LLC this fall liberate you from wi-fi signal and web servers, even as they deliver language study at the speed of the digital age.

NLD-Pro

While it’s comforting to hold a solid book in your hands, carrying around a resource like the New Lakota Dictionary poses some challenges. To bypass these, LLC has created both the NLD-O app to connect your smart phone to the online dictionary – and now, a way to download the entire NLD to your desktop computer, making an Internet connection unnecessary.

 

 

The NLD-Pro is the entire New Lakota Dictionary set in an interactive, searchable form designed to let you work offline.  The Help feature is especially useful to language learners. It will give you a handle on how to use the dictionary to build your own path of research and study.

For example, the NLD-Pro helps your word-search go quicker with an approximate spelling function – you don’t have to know a word’s exact spelling and diacriticals to look it up. The Help text says,

Press Ctrl + F and check “approximate spelling”. This will allow you to type e.g. tatanka when searching for tȟatȟáŋka or wicasa when searching for wičháša.

However, bear in mind that the approximate spelling (or simplified orthography) results in frequent ambiguities, for instance the search result when typing toka will be three words: tȟóka, tȟoká and tókȟa. The search for lena will display both léna and lená. Depending on the size of the entries you might only be able to see the first entry within the visible part of the search window so it is necessary to scroll down in order to see all search results.

 

NLD-Pro offers Autocorrect options for words you type in, and many different ways to search for a known or unknown word.  You can also “change the direction” of your translating, from English – Lakota to Lakota – English and back again.

The NLD-Pro’s Help function will show you how to do all of this, and more.

Part II takes an in-depth look at the Lakota Audio Series.

LLC is hopping this week, packing for the 7th Annual Lakota-Dakota Language Summit put on by Tusweca Tiospaye in Rapid City, SD, October 10-12.

The big change this year is that the Summit happens in October instead of November. Tusweca has joined forces with the Black Hills Powwow, combining the two events at Rushmore Plaza, so that hundreds of powwow participants from the U.S. and Canada also have a chance to experience the events and breakout sessions of the Language Summit.

The 28th Annual Black Hills Powwow takes place in the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, while the Summit goes on in the Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn.

LLC will have a big table display at the Summit, with fun new language-support materials like bumper stickers and t-shirts.  We’ll also show samples of our new products and have information about our upcoming projects.  Books, CDs, dictionaries, Lakota Berenstain Bears DVDs and other products from our catalog will be available for purchase.

We’re really looking forward to this Summit, which for the first time will provide a unique opportunity for teachers and language students to have intensive Lakota language instruction in a weekend workshop setting. There will also be a keynote speech by Ryan Wilson (Oglala), the Director of the National Alliance to Save Native Languages.  This is going to be a terrific opportunity for  interested supporters to become real language activists, in the midst of the Powwow’s cultural energy.

Come visit! We want to see you again.

Do you believe scary rumors about other people? Let Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe (the Compassionate Bear Family, a.k.a. the Berenstain Bears) help you with your Lakota language study in this Halloween story.

TRICK OR TREAT

Brother and Sister plan to avoid Widder Jones’ house when they go trick or treating because neighborhood lore has it that she’s a witch. Mama knows Widder Jones personally and tells the cubs what a sweet person she is. When the evening is over the cubs agree with Mama. They enjoyed visiting Widder Jones more than anyone else that Halloween.

 

Each Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe episode comes with free extras for download: a complete script in Lakota, a vocabulary sheet with English translations, and comprehension questions (in Lakota) to check your understanding of the action.

Matȟó Waúŋšila Thiwáhe is a co-production of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Lakota Language Consortium, Berenstain Enterprises and Nelvana Limited. Episodes were first broadcast in 2011 on Prairie Public Television.