Macro-Siouan languages
In the 19th century, Robert Latham suggested that the Siouan languages are related to the Caddoan and Iroquoian languages. In 1931, Louis Allen presented the first list of systematic correspondences between a set of 25 lexical items in Siouan and Iroquoian. In the 1960s and 1970s, Wallace Chafe further explored the link between Siouan and Caddoan languages. In the 1990s, Marianne Mithun compared the morphology and syntax of all the three families. At present, the Macro-Siouan hypothesis based on relations among Siouan, Caddoan, and Iroquoian is not universally accepted as proven.
Winnebago language
Like other Siouan languages, Ho-Chunk's basic word order is Subject-Object-Verb (SOV).An example of a typical sentence is "Hinųkra wažątirehižą ruwį" 'The woman bought a car.' In a sentence with two objects, such as "Hinųkiža hocįcįhižą wiiwagaxhižą hok'ų" 'A girl gave a boy a pencil,' the canonical word order is Subject-Indirect Object-Direct Object-Verb. Word order is relatively free in Ho-Chunk; however, while a word order such as "Wažątirehižą, hinųkra ruwį" 'The woman bought a car' is permissabie, the change from the basic neutral word order of SOV requires a prosodic pause indicated by a comma. Without this pause, an interpretation 'A car bought the woman' is possible, though highly unlikely.