lack of rhymes

[Jan Ullrich]

Dear Siouanists

While working on Lakota language teaching materials for young learners I
have been in search for rhymes such as parents tell or read to their
children in Indo-European and other languages. Such rhymes are very
effective in building up and reinforcing young children's vocabulary and
that is why I would like to employ them in the elementary teaching materials
I am working on.
As far as I have been able to tell there are no or very few rhyming sayings
in Lakota. Even the lyrics of the numerous songs don't have rhymes; they
usually have the typical syncopative strophe endings or the neighboring
strophes end with identical enclitics. But I find no "real" rhymes anywhere.

Therefore, I have been wondering whether the lack of rhyme in Lakota is
caused by its morphological and syntactic structure or by the fact that
rhyme as such has not developed in the language. Or a combination of the two
is at play. It is also possible that rhymes haven't been recorded and are
not remembered by temporary speakers (I have been asking speakers about
rhymes for quite some time).

What are your experiences with rhymes in other Siouan languages?

Jan



Jan Ullrich
www.inext.cz/siouan

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