We are pleased to announce a grant of $15,000 from the Grotto Foundation to support the publication of the New Lakota-Dakota Dictionary. This 1,000 page volume will be available in early 2008 and will cost less than $50. The Grotto grant will fund part of the final stage production and printing costs and allow 500 free copies to be distributed to schools and educators throughout the area. The Grotto Foundation and LLC are excited about the prospect of the Dictionary bridging the speech communities in South Dakota, Minnesota and North Dakota by representing all of the Lakota-Dakota dialects. The goal is to allow a Dakota language user in Minnesota, for example, to use the Dictionary to find Yankton-Dakota or Santee Dakota words while also learning their Lakota equivalents, or a person in South Dakota could use the Dictionary to find out both the English and Dakota versions of a word, giving the entire speech community an opportunity to become proficient in both Dakota and Lakota equivalents.
The Grotto Foundation believes the Dictionary will form the foundation for Lakota and Dakota language revitalization for many years to come, giving users access to and encouraging creation of new literary products and publications that will expand the accuracy of literature available in the languages. Using such a reference book should also spawn the production of new materials such as books, web pages, and email communications. Together with LLC’s new font and keyboard software, the Dictionary will thus provide a powerful tool for use of the language and exchange of ideas, a key step in creating a true national language into the 21st century. The Grotto foundation will also be hosting a book release celebration in Minneapolis in early 2008. We will keep everyone posted on details of this event. We are deeply grateful for this support, and look forward to working in an integrated manner with work being done by the Grotto foundation. Because of the high publication costs of the dictionary, other foundations will be supporting the project, and training for use of Dictionary will be conducted in 2008.
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