Asiamano

Asiamano (Asijamano) is a constructed language prominent in Italy, Malta, and Slovenia, while also serving as an unofficial language of the European Union. Asiamano is descended from the Italian language. About 25% of the vocabulary is Italian loanwords, while the other 75% is a mixture of Maltese and Slovene vocabulary with occasional borrowings from other Indo-European languages. It is written using the Latin script, and is unique among Italic languages for having five major cases and a dual number (an attribute inherited from Slovene), and has the infinite fourth person (not inherited from any language). Otherwise, the grammar is based on Italian grammar and syntax.


 * NOTE TO READERS: CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION. I LIKED THE WAY THE ARTICLE ON MALTESE WAS WRITTEN ON WIKIPEDIA SO I AM COPYING THE FORMAT, SO THERE IS INFORMATION ABOUT MALTESE ON HERE. IGNORE IT, IT WILL EVENTUALLY GO AWAY.*

Demographics
As of the current era, there are an estimated 75,000 native Asiamano speakers, of whom 70,000 currently reside in Malta, Slovenia, and Italy. Most of the native speakers reside in Ljubljana and Valletta, and are children of the first students of the language. The Slovenian native speakers of Asiamano are natively bilingual in both Asiamano and Slovene, while the Maltese native speakers are natively trilingual in Maltese, English, and Asiamano, and usually speak fluent Italian as a second language. There are small pockets of Asiamano speakers in Naples, Palermo, and Venice (it is a recognized language in the latter two cities). Around 5,000 of the native speakers live outside of those three countries, primarily southern France and Switzerland.

Classification
Asiamano is a Romance language descended from modern Italian, but has extreme influences by Maltese and Slovene. Today, the core vocabulary is a mixture of all three languages, roughly 25% Italian, 30% Maltese, 30% Slovene, and 15% other languages. Asiamano does not have any native singular nominative words other than slang, and depends on other languages for new vocabulary.

Phonology
Although Slovene has a large vowel system, Asiamano has only one phonemic value per vowel, so the pronunciation of Slovene words do change. Maltese's /ɐ/ shifts to an Italian /a/.

Diphthongs
/ɐʊ, ɐɪ, ɛʊ, ɛɪ, ɪʊ, ɔɪ, ɔʊ/ /a3 ac ec oI ou uI ja je jc jo ju wa we wi wo wc/

Stress
Stress is strictly on the penultimate syllable, unless if the grave accent (on à è ì ò ù) or circumflex (on ô) is added.

Alphabet
The Asiamano alphabet is based on the Italian alphabet. It was the only orthographic system ever used for the language. Below is the Asiamano alphabet, with IPA symbols.

The grave accent can be seen on stressed vowels (à, è, ì, ò, ù) outside of the normal stress position. The circumflex (a orthographic combination of the acute and grave accents) is seen on a stressed version of ó (ô). These are mainly seen in Italian loanwords, like università (university).

There are also several loan letters from native German words and words of German origin in Slovene.

Vocabulary
This language is unique in that it lacks any native singular nominative words (its declensions and dualization/pluralization are unique to the language), it is made completely of loanwords, mostly from Italian, Slovene, and Maltese, although French loanwords are on the rise.

The historical source of modern Asiamano vocabulary is 25% Italian, 30% Slovene, 30% Maltese, 7% French, and much of the remaining 3% English and Portuguese. Most of the function words are Maltese and Italian words.

Italian
An analysis of the etymology of the 47,500 words in Serbin's Asiamano-Italian Dictionary shows that words of Romance origin make up 25% of the Asiamano vocabulary, with spelling differences to convey the proper sound in a different orthography. They are mostly derived from standard Italian.

It is tendency in modern Asiamano to adopt words from Italian, but this is quickly being replaced by French and Portuguese.

Slovene
Slovene is a huge source of Asiamano loanwords, totaling around 30% of all vocabulary.

Maltese
Maltese and Slovene make up almost equal amounts of Asiamano vocabulary.

French, English, Portuguese, and German
Around 7% of all Asiamano words, mostly recent ones pertaining to technology and political terms, are formed from these four languages. French loanwords drop their diacritics and are phoneticized. English, German, and Portuguese words are phoneticized. English words can take on an umlaut (ä) for pronunciation. German words keep umlauts but "ß" is changed to "ss". Portuguese words take on a hybrid European and Brazilian phonology (words such as "principalmente" are pronounced /prin∫ipalmenʧi/ and are Asiamanocized as "prinshipalmenci").

Grammar
Asiamano grammar is fairly regular and simple, like Italian.

Adjectives and adverbs
Adjectives follow nouns and are dual/pluralized as necessary. Maltese adjectives lack the definite article (lei flore ahmar as opposed to lei flore lei ahmar).

Nouns
Nouns can be dualized and pluralized, as well as declined into five different cases. Only the nominative singular forms of verbs are native to the language; its declension rules are unique but simple, but depend on the language of origin. Nouns are genderless, but are divided into three different categories for declension and dual/pluralization: Italian loanwords, Slovene loanwords, and other loanwords (including Maltese). Italian dual/pluralizations ar the most true to their native form.

Words of Romance origin are usually pluralized in two manners: addition of -i or -jiet. For example, lingwa, lingwi "languages", from Sicilian lingua, lingui.

Type A: Italian Loanword Declensions

Italian nouns end in a, e, or o. There is a special declension system for each.

Type B: Slovene Loanword Declensions

Slovene nouns are classified by whether they end with a consonant or a vowel. Furthermore, consonant-final words are classified differently if the end in b, g, k, lh, m, n, nh, p, or ź.

Type C: Other Loanword Declensions

These words are declined the same way regardless of whether they end in a vowel or a consonant.

Article
The singular definite article for non-Slovene words is lei, the dual article is lha, and the plural article is li. The indefinite articles, number regardless, are un (before a vowel) and uni (before a consonant).

Examples:
 * lei flore, lha floru, li flori
 * lei ragatźa, lha ragatźu, li ragatźa
 * uni laham, uni lahama
 * lei 'attus, lha 'attuse, li 'attusa

The definite articles for Slovene words are the suffixes -et and -t, for consonant-final and vowel-final words respectively. The indefinite article is zhe.

Examples:
 * zhe mleko, mlekot
 * zhe voda, vodat
 * zhe denar, denaret
 * zhe roka, rokat

Verbs
Verb infinitives end in -i, and are formed from a mix of Slovene verbs, Italian -ire verbs, and Portuguese -ir verbs. There are no copulas. Verbs are conjugated by person and number.

Dialects
As a minor constructed language, there are only a few dialects. The standard dialect is the original dialect, created and spoken in Naples. There is a Maltese dialect, a Venetian/Slovene dialect, and a Riviera dialect (southern France). Since the language is not very widely spoken, these dialects are quite similar and mutually intelligible. The Riviera dialect is the most unique of all of the varieties, with a larger incorporation of French, Monégasque, and German words and a smaller incorporation of Maltese. Orthographic diacritics change in different regions, usually with the letters c, sh, zh, and ź, to fit in better with the local language. The letter "h" also has different pronunciations in different areas.

Media
With Malta being a multilingual country, the usage of Maltese in the mass media is shared with other European languages, namely English and Italian. The majority of television stations broadcast from Malta are in English or Maltese, although broadcasts from Italy in Italian are also received on the islands. Similarly, there are more Maltese-language radio programs than English ones broadcast from Malta, but again, as with television, Italian broadcasts are also picked up. Maltese generally receives equal usage in newspaper periodicals to English.

The use of the Maltese language on the Internet is not altogether common, and the number of websites written in Maltese are few. In a survey of Maltese cultural websites conducted in 2004 on behalf of the Maltese Government, 12 of 13 were in English only, while the remaining one was multilingual but did not include Maltese.

Code-switching
The Maltese population, being fluent in both Maltese and English, displays code-switching (referred to as Maltenglish) in certain localities and between certain social groups.