Drehu (; also known as Dehu, Lifou, Lifu, qene drehu) is an

Austronesian language The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken b ...

mostly spoken on Lifou Island, Loyalty Islands,

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

. It has about 12,000 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 on the French mainland. It has been also taught at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO) in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

since 1973 and at the University of New Caledonia since 2000. Like other Kanak languages, Drehu is regulated by the Académie des langues kanak, founded in 2007. A separate register of Drehu, known as ''qene miny'', was once used to speak to chiefs (joxu). Very few Drehu speakers know ''qene miny'' today.

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 the Roman script, is a 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 Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

by the Polynesian and English missionaries 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 tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...

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

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

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 typical dental consonants, which are articulated with the tongue against the ''back'' of the upper incisors. No langu ...

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

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