Drehu language

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Drehu
Region
L2 speakers (2009)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3dhv
Glottologdehu1237
Drehu is not endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Drehu ([ɖehu]; also known as Dehu,

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

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
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
  1. ^ a b c /b d͡ʒ v/ occur only in loanwords.

Writing system

Drehu was first written in the

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/

[10]

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

  1. ^ Drehu at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ In missionary time
  3. ^ In French
  4. ^ In English
  5. ^ Qene means language (literally "qe" : mouth, "ne" : of)
  6. Xârâcùù
    (around Canala and Thio).
  7. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-10-12. Retrieved 2005-12-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. ^ 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
  9. ^ Most were from the Cook Islands.
  10. ^ "Kanak languages academy". Académie des Langues Kanak. Retrieved 29 May 2023.

Bibliography

External links

Drehu language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
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