Dalmatian

Classification and Dialects
The Dalmatian language is spoken as an official language in Dalmatia and in the Dalmatian Commonwealth. It is a very conservative Balkan Romance language, since it has kept a greater part of the Latin grammar, and it has gained a lot of grammatical features and words due to the influence of the surrounding Slavic languages and the dead Illyrian languages.

Writing System

 * The digraph ea stands for the diphthong /ja/ : mea (=my, nominative singular feminine) /mja/
 * The digraph ia stands also for the diphthong /ja/, there is just an etymological difference between ea and ia, originating mostly from Latin : Ghermania (=Germany) /dʒɛrmanja/ from Latin "Germania", but : mea /mja/ from Latin "mea"
 * The digraph gh stands for the diphthong /dʒ/ : Ghermania (=Germany) /dʒɛrmanja/