Lakota textbooks by German and French authors

Lakota textbooks by German and French authors

Postby admin » September 24th, 2009, 9:46 am

German and French books on Lakota

Some of the German speaking forum members have asked the moderators about the quality and reliability of Lakota language books written by German authors, in particular the following:

Rebecca Netzel: SIOUX / LAKOTA WORT FÜR WORT (2005)
Martin Krüger: Lakóta wówaglaka. Lakota (Sioux) für Anfänger (2001)
Martin Krüger: Lakota Tamakoce, Das Land der Lakota, Lakota für Anfänger II (2003)
Martin Krüger: Lakota Verbtabellen - die wichtigsten Lakota-Verben im Singular und Plural ist beim SPIRIT STAR Verlag in Ratingen erschienen.

These materials are problematic for a number of reasons. Most significantly, the authors lack the needed linguistic expertise to work with the Lakota language and at the same time no native speakers were involved in the creating of these books. Rebecca Netzel contacted the LLC and asked for help with some sentences. The LLC provided the sentences for her and reviewed the entire book. Not only was the spelling completely unreliable but also a large percentage of the sentences and grammar rules were incorrect. Netzel dismissed our recommendations for corrections and published the book with the errors.

Martin Krüger from Berlin published three German-written textbooks on Lakota. All of these textbooks are completely unreliable in terms of spelling, grammar and idiomatic usage. These textbooks were created by an unqualified author and with no input from native speakers.


It is also worth mentioning that the French written book by Slim Batteux is inaccurate and unreliable for similar reasons.

Slim Batteux: Je parle sioux/lakota (1997)


Materials of this kind represent a great disservice to the students of the language as well as to overall Lakota language literacy and revitalization.


When creating materials for under-documented languages with little to no tradition in literacy, such as Lakota, it is nearly impossible to completely avoid making errors. There are hardly any Lakota materials in existence that are entirely error free. However, authors have to strive to limit the potential for error, especially doing their best to consult native speakers and involve them in the development and editing process. The lack of native speaker involvement always results in higher density of errors.
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