Problem:IOL/2004/i4/en

IOL 2004 Problem #4 Lakhota

Consider some words of Lakhota language (in Latin transliteration):

kĩza	a single high-pitched tone sounds
žata	it (e.g. a road) forks into two parts
šuža	it is badly bruised
$\gamma$ i	it is brown
mⁱniža	it is curled but can be smoothed again
g^eleza	it is ruled: \| \| \|
nu $\gamma$ a	it is hard and immovable (e.g. a gnarl on a tree)
mⁱni $\gamma$ a	it is shrunk permanently
zi	it is yellow
šli	thick liquid is being squeezed out
kĩža	a blending high-pitched tone sounds (e.g. a trill)
g^ele $\gamma$ a	it is striped

(a) Match the following words with their translations given in misarranged order:

k'e $\gamma$ a, k'eza, p^hešniža, suza, xu $\gamma$ a

it sparks, it is fractured, the surface is in a scratched condition, it has a slight bruise, the surface is in a scraped condition

(b) Translate into Lakota:

a thin liquid is being squeezed out

it is soft and movable (e.g. an enlarged gland under the skin)

it is red hot

it is semi-hard and movable (e.g. a cartilage)

it is branching into several directions

(c) Explain the meaning of the word ži.

⚠ The letter x is pronounced similarly to English h as in hard; the letter $\gamma$ is the devoiced correlate of x; š and ž are pronounced similarly to sh as in shoe and s as in pleasure, respectively. The letters k' and p^h signify specific Lakhota consonants, and ĩ, ⁱ, ^e signify specific Lakhota vowels. Lakhóta is an Indian language (Siou family). It is spoken by 6000 people in the USA and Canada.

—Ivan A. Derzhanski