Drehu (; also known as Dehu, Lifou, Lifu, qene drehu) is an Austronesian language mostly spoken on

Lifou Island Lifou Island, historically spelt Lifu or Lefu in English, and known as Drehu in the local language, is the largest, most populous and most important island of the Loyalty Islands, in the archipelago of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of ...

Loyalty Islands The Loyalty Islands Province (French ''Province des îles Loyauté'') is one of three administrative subdivisions of New Caledonia encompassing the Loyalty Island (french: Îles Loyauté) archipelago in the Pacific, which are located northeast of ...

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. It has about twelve-thousand fluent speakers and the status of a French regional language. This status means that pupils can take it as an optional topic for the

baccalauréat The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...

itself or French mainland. It has been also taught at the

Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales ( en, National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations), abbreviated as INALCO, is a French university specializing in the teaching of languages and cultures from the world. ...

(INALCO) in

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since 1973 and at th
University of New Caledonia
since 2000. As for other

Kanak The Kanak (French spelling until 1984: Canaque) are the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southwest Pacific. According to the 2019 census, the Kanak make up 41.2% of New Caledonia' ...

languages, Drehu is now regulated by the " Académie des langues kanak", officially founded in 2007. There is also a respectful

register Register or registration may refer to: Arts entertainment, and media Music * Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc. * ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller * Registration (organ), th ...

in Drehu, called ''qene miny''. In time past, this was used to speak to the chiefs (joxu). Today very few people still know and practice this language.

Phonology

Vowels

is heard as before nasals. can sometimes be before nasals.

Consonants

Writing system

Drehu was first written in the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern ...

by the Polynesian and

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missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...

of the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed in outlook, with Congregational m ...

during the 1840s, with the help of the natives. The first complete

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus ...

was published in 1890. The Bible writing system didn't distinguish between the dental (written "d", "t") and the alveolar/retroflex ("dr" and "tr") consonants, which for a long time were written indifferently "d" and "t". In Drehu and are not dental but

interdental consonant Interdental consonants are produced by placing the tip of the tongue between the upper and lower front teeth. That differs from dental consonants, which are articulated with the tongue against the ''back'' of the upper incisors. No language is k ...

s. The new writing system was created during the 1970s.

Alphabet

* A - a - �* B - be - * D - de - * E - e - * Ë - ë - �* G - ge - * H - ha - * I - i - /j* J - je - �* K - ka - (written as c in older documents) * L - ël - * M - ëm - * N - ën - * O - o - * Ö - ö - �* P - pe - * Q - qu - �/g* R - ër - * S - ës - * T - te - ̪* U - u - * V - ve - /v* W - we - * X - xa - * Z - ze -

Digraphs

* dj - ͡ʃ/d͡ʒ* dr - �* hl - ̥* hm - ̥* hn - ̥* hng, hŋ - �̊* hny, hñ - �̊* ng, ŋ - �* ny, ñ - �* sh - ʰ* tr - �

Grammar

Personal pronouns

Singular *''Eni/ni'': I, me *''Eö/ö'': you *''Nyipë/nyipëti'': you (a polite form of address to a chief (''joxu'')or an older man) *''Nyipo/nyipot(i)'': you (a polite form of address to an older woman) *''Angeic(e)'': he, him, she *''Nyidrë/nyidrët(i)'': he, him (a polite form of address to a chief (''joxu'')or an older man) *''Nyidro/nyidrot(i)'': you (a polite form of address to an older woman) *''Ej(e)'': it Dual *''Eaho/ho'': we two (exclusive) *''Easho/sho (easo/so)'': we two (inclusive) *''Epon(i)/pon(i)'': you two *''Eahlo'': they two *''Lue ej(e)'': they two for things and animals Plural *''Eahun(i)/hun(i)'': we, us (exclusive) *''Eashë/shë, easë/së'': we all, all of us (inclusive) *''Epun(i)/pun(i)'': you *''Angaatr(e)'': they, them *''Itre ej(e)'': they, them (for things and animals)

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * Le drehu, langue de Lifou (Iles Loyauté): phonologie, morphologie, syntaxe. * Maurice Lenormand, Dictionnaire de la langue de Lifou. Le Qene Drehu, 1999, Nouméa, Le Rocher-à-la-Voile, 533p * Tryon, Darrell T. ''Dehu-English dictionary''. C-6, vi + 142 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1967. * Tryon, Darrell T. ''English-Dehu dictionary''. C-7, iv + 165 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1967. * Tryon, Darrell T. ''Dehu grammar''. B-7, xii + 122 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1968.

External links

Read and listen to a traditional narrative in Drehu, in trilingual version
(homepage of French CNRS-Lacito).
Database of audio recordings in Drehu (Lifu) - basic Catholic prayers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Drehu Language Loyalty Islands languages Languages of New Caledonia