Adverbs are an important word class in Lakota with a very wide application. I thought of presenting this paper to the conference purely because I was struck by the number of occasions where Lakota uses adverbs, where English would not. The language has two types of adverb, primitive and derived. Primitive adverbs are words of adverbial function, which cannot be derived from other word classes. Derived adverbs of general manner meaning are derived mainly from verbal stems, but also from other word classes including nominal stems, postpositions and other adverbs, mainly by the addition of the suffixes based on an element -ya, but also -kiya, -s\e and -kel . The suffixes -ya and -yakel show the variants -yaÙ and -yaÙkel in nasal environments. Another usage which closely resembles that of adverbs in its meaning is the use of the plain verbal stem, either in its full or truncated form as a subordinate verb or participle. The form with -ya, -yela is often used in places where English would use adjectives (see below under 9.). I will give examples of the different adverbial types here, but will concentrate on the use of the derived adverb using -ya, -yela, which is the major type and is a very productive word class in Lakota. The examples given are only an illustrative selection and not intended to be exhaustive.

There is no specific place for the adverb in the sentence, though it will often precede the verb, which will usually be in final position as with mni hæmuyaÙ and mak»op\oya below>

ec»el Lak»ota ki	Mnisæosæe op»aya	mni hæmuyaÙ	ku-pi BO 106

so Lakota Top	Missouri along	water buzzing come-Plur

»so the Lakotas came along the Missouri splashing through the water.\

taku waÙ	mak»op\oya	nauÙg u BD

something one	dust cloudingly	gallop come

»something came galloping in a cloud of dust.\

1. Primitive adverbs

Examples given here are, as far as I can determine, not derived from other major word classes. These include many time and place adverbials, quantifiers and intensifiers. These may also show the adverb forming suffixes -ya, -yela etc mentioned below under 2. Examples are>

a;taya »entirely\, a;tayasæ »at all\, ece, ecee »habitually, constantly\, ecela »only\, ehaÙkec\uÙ »definitely\, glakiÙyaÙ »transversely\, inila »quietly\, ituya »in vain\, kaabeya »in all directions\, kaiyuzeya »a way off\, k»iyela, k»aÙyela

Sources are abbreviated as follows BD Buechel\s Lakota-English English-Lakota Dictionary, BO Bushotter Papers, BT Buechel Lakota Tales and Texts, Del Ella Deloria Dakota Texts, FFC a tape recording of Frank Fools Crow.

Adverbs are an important word class in Lakota with a very wide application

Bruce Ingham

2005-04-26

SOAS