# Drehu language

Drehu ([ɖehu]; also known as Dehu, Lifou, Lifu, qene drehu) is an Austronesian language mostly spoken on Lifou Island, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia. 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 in New Caledonia itself or on the French mainland. 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 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

| | 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 | |
| Nasals | voiced | m | | n | | ɲ | ŋ | |
| Stops and affricates | voiceless | p | | t | ʈ | t͡ʃ | k | |
| Stops and affricates | voiced | b | | d | ɖ | d͡ʒ | ɡ | |
| Fricatives | voiceless | f | θ | s | | | x | h |
| Fricatives | voiced | v | ð | z | | | | |
| Approximants | voiceless | ʍ | | l̥ | | | | |
| Approximants | voiced | w | | l | | | | |
* 1 2 3 /b d͡ʒ v/ occur only in loanwords.

## Writing system

Drehu was first written in the Latin script by the Polynesian 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.
Grapheme-phoneme correspondance :
| Grapheme | a | aa | b | c | d | dj | dr | e | ee | ë | ëë | f | g | h | hl | hm | hn | hng | hny | i | ii | j | k |
| Phoneme | /ɑ/ | /ɑː/ | /b/ | /c/ | /d̪/ | /ɟ/ | /d/ | /e/ | /eː/ | /ɛ/ | /ɛː/ | /f/ | /g/ | /h/ | /l̥/ | /m̥/ | /n̥/ | /ŋ̊/ | /ɲ̊/ | /i/ | /iː/ | /ð/ | /k/ |
| Grapheme | l | m | n | ng | ny | o | oo | ö | öö | p | q | r | s | sh | t | th | tr | u | uu | v | w | x | z |
| Phoneme | /l/ | /m/ | /n/ | /ŋ/ | /ɲ/ | /o/ | /oː/ | /ʌ/ | /ʌː/ | /p/ | /w̥/ | /r/ | /s/ | /ʃ/ | /t/ | /θ/ | /t/ | /u/ | /uː/ | /v/ | /w/ | /x/ | /z/ |

## 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)