Lakhota

Siouan family · Mississippi Valley Siouan branch · North America

Lakhota is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

The closest grammar profile to Lakhota in the atlas belongs to Slave, a Na-Dene language: the two agree on 70 of the 113 features both have coded.

On Order of Relative Clause and Noun, WALS codes Lakhota as “Internally-headed relative clause”, a value held by 24 of the 824 languages coded, Kutenai and Lavukaleve among them.

On Order of Genitive and Noun, all 8 other Siouan languages coded have the value “Genitive-noun (GenN)”; Lakhota has “Both orders occur with neither order dominant”.

The order Lakhota uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Lakhota with Slave or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Lakhota, rarest first.

Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb10-11 categories per word7 of 145
Order of Person Markers on the VerbBoth orders of A and P occur19 of 379
Order of Demonstrative and NounTwo or more of above types with none dominant67 of 1,225
Voicing in Plosives and FricativesVoicing contrast in fricatives alone38 of 567
Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingActive alignment26 of 380
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsBoth morphological type and compound type24 of 310
Fusion of Selected Inflectional FormativesIsolating/concatenative13 of 165
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person MarkingZero in all 3rd person forms36 of 380

Inside the Siouan family

Lakhota matches the most frequent Siouan value on 14 of the 23 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (61%).

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Lakhota; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Yuchi family of its own45 of 71
Navajo Na-Dene51 of 84
Guaraní Tupian65 of 110
Urubú-Kaapor Tupian48 of 81

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Lakhota for 120 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 109 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Lakhota shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Glottalized Consonants	Ejectives only	58 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Moderately high	102 of 564
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels present	64 of 244
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	Other	242 of 567
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Tone	No tones	307 of 527
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Presence of Uncommon Consonants	None	449 of 567
Uvular Consonants	No uvulars	470 of 567
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Moderate preference for prefixing	94 of 969
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Consistently head-marking	47 of 236
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is head-marked	71 of 236
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is head-marked	78 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is never syncretic	81 of 198
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	No case	75 of 162
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
Reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication	278 of 368
Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection	monoexponential TAM	127 of 160
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 22

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number affixes	25 of 261
The Associative Plural	Associative plural absent	37 of 236
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural word	170 of 1,066
Indefinite Articles	Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one'	102 of 534
Person Marking on Adpositions	Person marking for pronouns only	83 of 378
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive prefixes	255 of 902
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	81 of 261
Ordinal Numerals	First, two-th, three-th	110 of 321
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Three-way contrast	88 of 234
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	79 of 200
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated	74 of 168
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
Indefinite Pronouns	Interrogative-based indefinites	194 of 326
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction	136 of 207
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Differentiation	213 of 322
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	No action nominals	42 of 168
Possessive Classification	Two classes	94 of 243
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301
Noun Phrase Conjunction	AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical	131 of 234
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Coding of Evidentiality	Separate particle	65 of 418
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	122 of 548
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + normal negative	113 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Affixes on verbs	84 of 240
The Past Tense	No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction	88 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Only indirect evidentials	166 of 418
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
The Perfect	No perfect	114 of 222
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
Verbal Number and Suppletion	No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples	159 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at end of sentence	314 of 884
Order of Object and Verb	Object precedes verb (OV)	712 of 1,518
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Postpositions	577 of 1,184
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral follows noun (NNum)	608 of 1,154
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial	615 of 902
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 20

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No other roles (= Only benefactive)	36 of 183
Comparative Constructions	Conjoined Comparative	34 of 167
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Double-object construction	84 of 378
Predicative Possession	Have-Possessive	63 of 240
Applicative Constructions	Benefactive and other; both bases	49 of 183
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric standard negation only: Type Sym	114 of 297
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	Non-assignable (no asymmetry found)	114 of 297
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding	151 of 386
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of both the A and P arguments	193 of 378
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs	437 of 711
Nominal and Locational Predication	Different	269 of 386
Antipassive Constructions	No antipassive	146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	no antipassive	146 of 186
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Obliques	Non-Reduction Strategy	14 of 112
Relativization on Subjects	Non-reduction	24 of 166
Purpose Clauses	Balanced	38 of 170
'When' Clauses	Balanced	84 of 174
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
M-T Pronouns	M-T pronouns, paradigmatic	27 of 230
M in First Person Singular	m in first person singular	53 of 230
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
M in Second Person Singular	No m in second person singular	152 of 230
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230

Other 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks	Clicks may express neither affective nor logical meanings	25 of 143