Háu, kȟolá!
My name is J. Thomas McAlister. I am on a journey to learn the Lakota language! This blog will help document my learning, my thoughts, and my observations. Follow along and learn with me.
First, let me introduce myself. I am a linguist and an educator, and I am currently working on my PhD dissertation, which is related to heritage language learners and how their families maintain the heritage language. My family is an English/Chinese Mandarin bilingual family. Previously, I created a blog while I was learning Japanese for my doctoral requirements. You can find my previous blog at: http://whisperjapanese.blogspot.com
Why Lakota? Lakota, like many Native American languages, are struggling to maintain a thriving community. Languages thrive by being learned, spoken, and shared. Languages provide information, culture, and a new perspective. These are things I greatly appreciate. I do this to learn and to share knowledge--which I find to be my role in this world. I have taught English to thousands of students over the past 15 years. I have also have some opportunities to teach Chinese Mandarin with some Americans, and I have taught bits and pieces of Japanese to my children. Learning any language can be an amazing and eye-opening process that can make your life just a little bit more enjoyable.
I was recently in contact with the Language Conservancy. While I am NOT working for them, my conversation inspired me to give this a try. I am not expecting to become fluent immediately, but I am learning something new. I will post once or twice a week as I learn new words and sentence structures. I will also post updates on what I discover as a linguist as well. What patterns do I notice? What struggles do I have? What resources are out there?
Let me start with that last question:
http://lakhota.org/software-downloads/ -- This site has a lot of resources, specifically, I have started by downloading the dictionary. My first steps over the next two weeks will be to familiarize myself with the writing system and try to learn the phonetic inventory (i.e., I need to figure out how the language is written and spoken, in a very general basic sense.)
Feel free to comment or ask questions. You can provide tips, advice, or corrections.
