For contemporary Lakota notation please refer to the New Lakota Dictionary (Ullrich 2008).

Guide to pronunciation

Character		Sound as	In English	In Lakota (Buechel)
a		a	father	até
	a' an, an'	a- an	fa'ther (the a is stopped short) blanc (French)	ška' ánpo or tan'ín
b		b	boy	buyá
c		ch	chair	séca
	ċ c'	j ch-	joy ch'air (ch alone is sounded)	císcila ic'ú
e		e	they	cépa
	e'	e-	re'	ške'
g		g	big	ogná
	ġ g'	ch g-	máchen (German) g'o	kaġá šung'íte
h		h	hat	hánpa
	ḣ, ḣ', h'	h (gutturalized)	ȟog, ḣ', or h' stops	ȟe ská, nah'on
i		i	machine	ilé
	in, in'	in	ink	kin or can'icoga
j		s	fusion	ceji
k			kill	kínja
	ǩ, ǩ, k'	g, ǩ, k'	give (ǩ gutturalized, k' stop)	ǩin, ǩáta, k'in (*)
l		l	love	ilála
	l'	l'	sol'stice	lol'
m		m	man	máni
n		n	nose	na
	n, n', ŋ	(nasal indicator)	blanc (French)	can'ípame, caŋípame
o		o	oak	hoǧán
on		oo (nasal)	soon	ónšila
p		p	pink	pa (head)
	ṗ, ṗ, p'	b, ṗ, p'	bill (ṗ gutturalized, p' stop)	ṗahá, ṗejí, p'o
s		s	say	sintè
	s'	s-	s-ay	s'e
š		sh	show	ša
	š'	sh-	sh-ow	waš'aka
t		t	take	tápa
	ṫ, ṫ, t'	d, ṫ, t'	day (ṫ gutturalized, t' stop)	wašté, ṫanní, t'a
u		oo	boot	úta
un		oo (nasal)	soon	únpi
w		w	way	wakán
y		y	yonder	yanká
z		z	zero	wazíyata
	z'	z-	z-ink	maz'ípame

Note: Vowels when terminating a statement or fact may accept a stop: thus han', keyapí, ška', ške', and so forth.
(After Buechel & Manhart 2002: xiv)

(*) The ǩ is marked by a top point in Buechel, but there appears to be no according Unicode symbol.

Rules for Reading and Writing Lakota

"Pertaining to the guttural h, ȟ:

ȟ need not be given a diacritical mark. It is assumed when

• h is the first consonant forming a cluster of consonants.
• h is the last character in a word
• h is also a consonant stop, h'.

but it must be given one when ȟ is preceded by a space or vowel and followed by a vowel.

Pertaining to the nasal n and nasal s top, n':

n is pronounced as in the word 'name' and is also commonly used in Lakota as it is in English, but it is also used as a nasal indicator when

• followed by a consonant or terminating a word.
• preceded by a nasal vowel and followed by a vowel, but then the nasal vowel must be stopped, thus n'.

Note 4: Vowels and nasal vowels — that is, a, e, i, o, u, and an, in, on, and un — are sounded much the same as they are in Latin. The short and the long vowel are marked thus ă (the short a) and ā (the long a). The short vowel is briefly sounded; the long is dwelt upon. On the other hand, mediate consonants are sounded much like the English consonants that Lakota employs." [Buechel and Manhart 2002: xiii]