miista, or "words," in mioie. Meanwhile, artificial possessive pronouns are used to signify property and possessions that can be transferred or traded. For example, the artificial pronoun ta- or ti-, which is equivalent to the singular her or him, can be prefixed onto nouns such as "bow," in tinazipe, and "friend," in takodaku. Syntax Nouns and verbs Dakota is mainly a subject-object-verb (SOV) language, where nouns, whether they are the subject or object, always come before the verb. And when two nouns are used in the same clause, where one is the subject and the other is the object, the subject is most usually placed first. Verbs are also usually placed after adjectives that are used to qualify either the subject or the object and adverbs that qualify the verb. When additional words are used within a clause that are not either nouns or verbs, the nouns, both subject and object, are always placed at the beginning of the clause. Dialects Dakota has two major dialects with two sub-dialects each: Eastern Dakota ( Santee-Sisseton or Dakhóta) Santee (Isáŋyáthi: Bdewákhaŋthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpékhute) Sisseton (Sisíthuŋwaŋ, Waȟpéthuŋwaŋ) Western Dakota (a.k.a. Yankton-Yanktonai or Dakȟóta/Dakhóta, and erroneously classified, for a very long time, as "Nakota") Yankton (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋ) Yanktonai (Iháŋktȟuŋwaŋna) Upper Yanktonai (Wičhíyena) The two dialects differ phonologically, grammatically, and to a large extent, also lexically. They are mutually intelligible to a high extent, although Western Dakota is lexically closer to the Lakota language with which it has higher mutual intelligibility. Writing systems For a comparative table of the various writing systems conceived over time for the Sioux languages, cf. the specific section of the article Sioux language. Phonology Vowels Dakota has five oral vowels, , and three nasal vowels, . Consonants Comparison of the dialects Phonological differences In respect to phonology Eastern and Western Dakota differ particularly in consonant clusters. The table below gives the possible consonant clusters and shows the differences between the dialects: The two dialects also differ in the diminutive suffix (-daŋ in Santee, and -na in Yankton-Yanktonai and in Sisseton) and in a number of other phonetic issues that are harder to categorize. The following table gives examples of words that differ in their phonology. Lexical differences There are also numerous lexical differences between the two Dakota dialects as well as between the sub-dialects. Yankton-Yanktonai is in fact lexically closer to the Lakota language than it is to Santee-Sisseton. The following table