Drehu language
| Drehu | |
|---|---|
| Region | Lifou, New Caledonia |
Native speakers | unknown; est. 13,000 includes many L2 speakers (2009)[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | dhv |
| Glottolog | dehu1237 |
| ELP | Lua error in Module:Endangered_Languages_Project at line 21: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). |
| File:Lang Status 99-NE.svg Drehu is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Drehu (pronounced [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 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.[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[7] 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.[8]
Phonology
[edit | edit source]Vowels
[edit | edit source]| 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
[edit | edit source]| 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[a] | d | ɖ | d͡ʒ[a] | ɡ | |||
| Fricatives | voiceless | f | θ | s | x | h | ||
| voiced | v[a] | ð | z | |||||
| Approximants | voiceless | ʍ | l̥ | |||||
| voiced | w | l | ||||||
Writing system
[edit | edit source]Drehu was first written in the Latin script by the Polynesian[9] 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 did not 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/ | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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Grammar
[edit | edit source]Personal pronouns
[edit | edit source]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
[edit | edit source]- ^ Drehu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ In missionary time
- ^ In French
- ^ In English
- ^ Qene means language (literally "qe" : mouth, "ne" : of)
- ^ Only five of the twenty-eight Kanak languages (in the 1999 Rapport Cerquilini or 40 according to the Académie des langues kanak) have this status: Drehu (island of Lifou), Nengone (island of Maré), A'jië (around Houaïlou), Paicî (around Poindimié) and Xârâcùù (around Canala and Thio).
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- ^ As Maurice Leenhardt did ("Langues et dialectes de l'Austro-Mélanésie" (1946), the Académie considers qene miny not only as a respective register but also a distinct language
- ^ Most were from the Cook Islands.
- ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
Bibliography
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- Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- (in French) Le drehu, langue de Lifou (Iles Loyauté): phonologie, morphologie, syntaxe. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- (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. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- Tryon, Darrell T. English-Dehu dictionary. C-7, iv + 165 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1967. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
- Tryon, Darrell T. Dehu grammar. B-7, xii + 122 pages. Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University, 1968. Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
External links
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