Drehu ([ɖehu]; also known asDehu,^[2]Lifou,^[3]Lifu,^[4]qene drehu^[5]) is anAustronesian language mostly spoken onLifou Island,Loyalty Islands,New Caledonia. It has about 12,000 fluent speakers and the status of aFrench regional language. This status means that pupils can take it as an optional topic for thebaccalauréat inNew Caledonia itself or on theFrench mainland.^[6] It has been also taught at theInstitut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO) inParis since 1973 and at theUniversity of New Caledonia^[7] since 2000. Like otherKanak languages, Drehu is regulated by theAcadémie des langues kanak, founded in 2007.

Drehu
Region	Lifou,New Caledonia
Native speakers	unknown; est. 13,000 includes manyL2 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
Drehu is not endangered according to the classification system of theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger
This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA.

A separateregister of Drehu, known asqene miny, was once used to speak tochiefs (joxu). Very few Drehu speakers knowqene miny today.^[8]

/e/ is heard as[ɛ] before nasals.

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

Drehu was first written in theLatin script by thePolynesian^[9] andEnglishmissionaries of theLondon Missionary Society during the 1840s, with the help of the natives. The first completeBible 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 butinterdental consonants. The new writing system was created during the 1970s.

^[10]

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 Grammaticales sur la langue de Lifu (Loyaltys) (in French). Paris. 1882.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Ray, Sidney H. (Jul–Dec 1917)."The People and Language of Lifu, Loyalty Islands".Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute.47. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland: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

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