The Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe. Leon Dominian
swelling, lies under a sandy glacial mantle. The two European regions have only one advantage over their Asiatic type. They are better watered. The furthest penetration of Eurasian lowlands into Europe is obtained through them. The approach to Hungary is made without a break, through the valley of the Danube. To Finland access is equally easy once the Urals are crossed. That this range proved no obstacle to the westerly spread of central Asiatic peoples is indicated by their presence west of its axis and their settlement in the Volga valley prior to Slav inroads. But neither in lake-dotted Finnish lands nor within the limited and mountain-hedged area of Hungary could the Asiatic invaders find room for expansion or nomadism. From herdsmen they became farmers. The change is the dawn of their history as a European nation, and of the development of every manifestation of their culture. A more advanced language became the measure of the increasingly complex character of their needs—that is to say, of higher civilization. The whole story, traced from its origin, illustrates the superior civilizing power vested in European geography. In the sterile steppes of the northern half of Asia man led an easier life than in the cramped regions of diversified Europe. On the broad flatlands of the east he roamed with little thought of the morrow and without incentive to improve his condition. In the west he was spurred to activity by the very limitations of his homeland.
In our day about seventy different languages are spoken in Russia. In this fact is found a serious drawback to effective national unity. Fortunately the spread of the dialects belonging to the Slavic group of languages is steady. The thorough Slavicization of the peoples of the basin of the Volga is not yet ended, but Great Russian is gradually uprooting the native Uralo-Altaic tongues. It is also imposing itself upon Asiatic languages in Caucasia and Transcaspian territory. Wherever there has been a thorough blending of dialects into Russian, nationality has sprung into existence. Elsewhere unity is in process of formation. The problem before the governing class consists in hastening the assimilation of the different elements to the original Slavic nucleus. Not until this consummation has taken place will the country have developed its full strength. And the measure of progress will be indicated by the growing replacement of the numerous dialects by a single national language.
Looking back over the stormy centuries during which French, German and Russian nationalities were elaborated, we behold the formative influence of language everywhere. Aspirations which precede the period of free and unfettered national life give way to achievement when national hopes are crowned. This we shall find in greater detail in the succeeding chapters.
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Fig. 10—View of Nizhni-Novgorod and the Fair across the Oka River.
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Fig. 11—Plain of the Dnieper at Kiev.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] E. C. Semple: The Barrier Boundary of the Mediterranean Basin and Its Northern Breaches as Factors in History, Ann. Assoc. Amer. Geogr., Vol. 5, 1915, pp. 27–59.
[2] The Neolithic lasted longer north of the Alps.
[3] The dialects or patois spoken today in France all fall under one of these two languages. They can be classified as follows:
| Langue d’Oc | |
| Patois | Spoken in the Departments of |
| Languedocian | Gard, Hérault, Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Ariège, Haute-Garonne, Lot-et-Garonne, Tarn, Aveyron, Lot, Tarn-et-Garonne. |
| Provençal | Drôme, Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône, Hautes- and Basses-Alpes, Var. |
| Dauphinois | Isère. |
| Lyonnais | Rhône, Ain, Saône-et-Loire. |
| Auvergnat | Allier, Loire, Haute-Loire, Ardèche, Lozère, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal. |
| Limousin | Corrèze, Haute-Vienne, Creuse, Indre, Cher, Vienne, Dordogne, Charente, Charente-Inférieure, Indre-et-Loire. |
| Gascon | Gironde, Landes, Hautes-Pyrénées, Basses-Pyrénées, Gers. |
| Langue d’Oïl | |
| Norman | Normandie, Bretagne, Perche, Maine, Anjou, Poitou, Saintonge. |
| Picard | Picardie, Ile-de-France, Artois, Flandre, Hainaut, Lower Maine, Thiérache, Rethelois. |
| Burgundian | Nivernais, Berry, Orléanais, Lower Bourbonnais, part of Ile-de-France, Champagne, Lorraine, Franche-Comté. |
[4] The terminal s, a distinctly Latin form, is seen to persist in this early stage of the language.
[5] Niederdeutsch is derived directly from Old Saxon, the language which enters into the composition of the Anglo-Saxon current in England at the time of the Norman Conquest.
[6] Cf. Sheets 12a, Europe, Flusz-Gebirgskarte, and 12c, Europa, Sprachen- und Völkerkarte, both 1:12,000,000, in Debes: Handatlas.
CHAPTER II THE BOUNDARIES OF FRENCH AND GERMANIC LANGUAGES IN BELGIUM AND LUXEMBURG
The western section of the Franco-German linguistic boundary extends over Belgian territory through a country in which the formation of nationality has been exceedingly laborious. Flemish and Walloon, two languages within a single political boundary, represent the obstacles which stood in the way of national growth. Physically Belgium also consists of diversified regions. Its history is the long drawn-out struggle between two powerful neighbors. Over and over again its inhabitants have found themselves drawn into foreign quarrels against their will.
The country is a marshland in which the mountains and plains of Europe meet. The main divisions which correspond to this background have inherited the names of Flanders and Wallonia. The clashing-ground of men of the Alpine and Nordic races, Belgium received wave after wave of northerners who came to colonize its broad flatlands. At the time of the conquest, the Romans came upon long-established colonies, but found to their cost that Teuton invasions were not ended. In the fifth century of our era the northern lowland was cleared of Romans by the Franks; but to this day the dualism of its people has not been obliterated. To whatever extent inbreeding has destroyed racial purity, the Fleming of our day represents the Nordic race, while the Walloon is mainly Alpine. Of the two, the fair-complexioned product of the north speaks a Teutonic language, whereas the swarthy highlander is both the user and disseminator