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Drehu ([ɖehu]; also known as Dehu,[2] Lifou,[3] Lifu,[4] qene drehu[5]) is an Austronesian language mostly spoken on Lifou Island, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia. 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 in New Caledonia itself or French mainland.[6] It has been also taught at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO) in Paris since 1973 and at the University of New Caledonia Archived 2007-10-12 at the Wayback Machine since 2000. As for other Kanak languages, Drehu is now regulated by the "Académie des langues kanak", officially founded in 2007.

Drehu
Region	Lifou, New Caledonia
Native speakers	unknown; est. 13,000 includes many L2 speakers (2009)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Oceanic Southern Oceanic New Caledonian – Loyalties Loyalty Islands Drehu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	dhv
Glottolog	dehu1237
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There is also a respectful register in Drehu, called qene miny.[7] In time past, this was used to speak to the chiefs (joxu). Today very few people still know and practice this language.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː	ø øː	o oː
Open	æ æː		ɑ ɑː

/e/ is heard as [ɛ] before nasals.

/ø/ can sometimes be [e] before nasals.

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Alveopalatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasals	voiceless	m̥		n̥		ɲ̊	ŋ̊
	voiced	m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Stops and affricates	voiceless	p		t	ʈ	t͡ʃ	k
	voiced	b[lower-alpha 1]		d	ɖ	d͡ʒ[lower-alpha 1]	ɡ
Fricatives	voiceless	f	θ	s			x	h
	voiced	v[lower-alpha 1]	ð	z
Approximants	voiceless	ʍ		l̥
	voiced	w		l

Writing system

Drehu was first written in the Latin script by the Polynesian[8] and English missionaries of the London Missionary Society during the 1840s, with the help of the natives. The first complete Bible 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 /θ/ and /ð/ are not dental but interdental consonants. The new writing system was created during the 1970s.

Alphabet

• A - a - [ɑ]
• B - be - [b]
• D - de - [d]
• E - e - [e]
• Ë - ë - [æ]
• G - ge - [g]
• H - ha - [h]
• I - i - [i/j]
• J - je - [ð]
• K - ka - [k] (written as c in older documents)
• L - ël - [l]
• M - ëm - [m]
• N - ën - [n]
• O - o - [o]
• Ö - ö - [ø]
• P - pe - [p]
• Q - qu - [ʍ/g]
• R - ër - [r]
• S - ës - [s]
• T - te - [t̪]
• U - u - [u]
• V - ve - [f/v]
• W - we - [w]
• X - xa - [x]
• Z - ze - [z]

Digraphs

• dj - [t͡ʃ/d͡ʒ]
• dr - [ɖ]
• hl - [l̥]
• hm - [m̥]
• hn - [n̥]
• hng, hŋ - [ŋ̊]
• hny, hñ - [ɲ̊]
• ng, ŋ - [ŋ]
• ny, ñ - [ɲ]
• sh - [sʰ]
• tr - [ʈ]

[9]

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2008)

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

• Notes Grammaticales sur la langue de Lifu (Loyaltys) (in French). Paris. 1882.
• Ray, Sidney H. (Jul–Dec 1917). "The People and Language of Lifu, Loyalty Islands". Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 47: 239–322. doi:10.2307/2843343. JSTOR 2843343.
• Walsh, D. T. (1967). Dehu Grammar. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
• (in French) Le drehu, langue de Lifou (Iles Loyauté): phonologie, morphologie, syntaxe. ISBN 2-85297-142-9
• (in French) 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. doi:10.15144/PL-C6
• Tryon, Darrell T. English-Dehu dictionary. C-7, iv + 165 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1967. doi:10.15144/PL-C7
• Tryon, Darrell T. Dehu grammar. B-7, xii + 122 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1968. doi:10.15144/PL-B7

External links

• Read and listen to a traditional narrative in Drehu, in trilingual version Archived 2015-03-20 at the Wayback Machine (homepage of French CNRS-Lacito).
• Database of audio recordings in Drehu (Lifu) - basic Catholic prayers^{[permanent dead link]}

На других языках

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- [en] Drehu language

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[fr] Drehu

Le drehu (autonyme : qene drehu, /de.hu/), anciennement appelé dehu ou lifou, est une langue austronésienne du groupe des langues kanak parlée principalement sur l'île de Lifou, dans l'archipel des îles Loyauté, en Nouvelle-Calédonie.

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[ru] Деху

Деху[1] (Лифуан, Dehu, De’u, Lifou, Lifu, Qene Drehu) — океанийский язык, на котором говорят в Новой Каледонии. Традиционно был распространён на островах Луайоте (острова Лифу и Тига), но в настоящее время около 60 % носителей проживает в Нумеа и окрестностях. По данным 2009 года было 13 000 носителей языка[2].

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