The Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe. Leon Dominian
modify their racial characteristics. A given type therefore corresponds to a definite period and place. The vagueness conveyed by the term Aryan, whether applied to language or people, is to be explained by the inherent instability of the subject.
A theoretical representation of the operation of this change may be offered by assuming that NA is the offspring of the first Nordic N having come in contact with an Alpine A. The tendency for NA is to migrate southwards. His offspring may be represented as NAA as the likelihood is that NA will have taken an Alpine wife to himself. This is the prelude to a long series of generations to each of which an A strain is added. At the same time the steadily maintained migration of Nordics in a southerly direction towards and beyond the territory occupied by the Alpines tends to bring new N strains to the mixed product. At a given stage contact with Mediterranean races becomes established and the process of obliterating Nordic traits is intensified.
We thus see that as the northern invaders pressed southward they became more or less absorbed in the indigenous populations. Their physique changed and their individuality vanished. However great the strength of the invaders, they could bring relatively few women in their train. This was especially true whenever they operated in a mountainous country. The passes through which their advance was made were open only to the more vigorous in the bands of fighting men or adventurers.
At the end of the Neolithic, about 5,000 years ago,[2] Europe was the home of a type of man physically similar to any average European of our day. This type is the product of long-continued contact between the original human product of Europe, Asia and Africa. The dawn of history finds him speaking Celtic in western central Europe. An immense variety of dialects must then have been spoken on the continent, since intercourse was slight. Their fusion into modern languages has been the work of centuries. Out of the linguistic sifting of the past two millenniums, three great groups of languages have emerged: the Romanic, Germanic and Slavic, distributed over Europe from west to east. In these three groups French, German and Russian occupy respectively the leading rank.
The distinction between the languages spoken in northern and southern France was highly marked in early medieval days. The langue d’oïl in use north of a line starting at the mouth of the Gironde River and passing through Angoulême, L’Isle-Jourdain and Roanne eventually acquired ascendancy over the langue d’oc spoken to the south.[3] The dialect of this northern language which prevailed in Ile-de-France was the precursor of modern French. It spread rapidly throughout the country after the acquisition of Aquitaine by French kings and the consolidation of France by the annexation of Burgundian lands. The French of Paris thus became a national language whose linguistic and literary prestige is still strongly felt over the rest of the country.
The Roman conquest of Gaul brought Latin to the country because the civilization of the south was superior. At the time of the coming of the Franks, the Latinized Gaulish language was taken up by the conquerors because it also was the symbol of superior intellectual development. The conversion of barbarian invaders to Christianity helped to maintain Latinized forms of speech. The Latin of the Romans was modified, however, by the different local dialects. Thus the patois of langue d’oc and of langue d’oïl acquired resemblance through the leavening influence of Latin.
Fig. 3—Sketch map of France showing mountain areas and basins.
As long as southern France exercised a preponderating influence in national affairs, the langue d’oc occupied the first place in the country. In the eleventh century it was spoken by the leading classes in the north, as well as by the masses in the south. Such, at least, is the testimony of manuscripts of this period. But with the passing of power into the hands of northern Frenchmen, the langue d’oïl came into wider use, until one of its patois gave rise to the French which was subsequently to become the medium of expression for the genius of Molière and the notable host of his literary countrymen.
Fig. 4—St. Seine l’Abbaye near Dijon lies in the area of langue d’oïl. The fair land of Burgundy, of which the view is typical, has been open to northern invasions on the northwest and the northeast.
Fig. 5—A farmhouse in the Black Forest, a typical habitation in districts in which High German is spoken.
Between the langue d’oc and the langue d’oïl the difference was that of north and south. The southern idioms expressed feeling and harmony, hence they were preferred by poets. The troubadours favored them exclusively during the Middle Ages. The “parlers” of the north, on the other hand, were endowed with the staying qualities of lucidity, order and precision. The beauty of modern French, as well as the attraction it exerts on cultivated minds, is due to its well-balanced blend of northern and southern elements. French of our day is the shrine in which the treasured remains of earlier centuries are still preserved. In it the sunshine of the south pierces with its warm rays the severity of northern earnestness. No other European language can boast of an equally happy composition. In this respect it is a true mirror of the French mind as well as of French nationality.
As spoken at present, French is derived in direct line from a sub-dialect of the Picard patois formerly spoken in Paris and Pontoise and which spread throughout all Ile-de-France. This province may be aptly described as the bottom of the bowl-shaped area of northern France. It owes its geographical distinctiveness to the convergence of a number of important valleys which empty the products of their fertility into the Paris basin lying in its very center. Five of these irregular furrows, the Seine, Loing, Yonne, Marne and Oise, radiate outwardly from the low-lying Paris center. The ebb and flow of national power and language sped its alternate course along their channels until, from being the heart, Paris, always inseparable from its language, became also the head of France.
Fig. 6—Part of France showing the contact between “langue d’oc” and “langue d’oïl” countries. The shaded area represents the “langue d’oïl” or northern language. “Langue d’oc” prevailed in the unruled area. Between these two regions a transitional zone, shown by broken ruling, intervened, in which a mixture of the two languages was spoken.
The Frankish dukedom founded on such a site grew naturally into a kingdom. And along with the establishment of a royal court, the language of the region acquired part of the kingly prestige. Herein we find the explanation of the derivation of the name French from that of Frankish as well as of the language from the local sub-dialect of the Picard patois. Already in the thirteenth century, from this magnificently situated base as a center, both language and nation had absorbed additional territory by a process of steady outward growth. It was French unity in the early making. As early as the twelfth century, no northern nobleman dared appear at the French court without having previously acquired familiarity with its language and manners. The precious literary monuments of this century show that this court language was already known as “François.” A hundred years later, about 1260, French had acquired so much polish and importance that we find Italian writers using it in preference to their own dialects. So in 1298, Marco Polo, a Venetian, gives out the first account of his eastern travels in French, while Brunetto Latini, who was Dante’s tutor, writes his Tesoreto in the same language, explaining his preference by remarking that French “est plus délitaubles languages et plus communs que moult d’autres.”[4]
German was to become the language of central Europe. Interposed between the territories of Romanic and Slavic languages, the area of German speech occupies a magnificently commanding position. Originally the language spoken west of the Elbe and Saale rivers, it had advanced considerably to the east in the first century