Drehu language

Drehu
Drehu
Region	Lifou, New Caledonia
Native speakers	unknown; est. 13,000 includes many L2 speakers (2009)
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 the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Drehu ([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]

^ 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).
^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-10-12. Retrieved 2005-12-31.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
^ 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