The Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe. Leon Dominian
At the partition of the Carolingian Empire in 843,[7] the Schelde became the dividing line between Lotharingia and France. Flemings and Walloons, who had been thrown together for centuries, were separated into an eastern and a western group. Nevertheless their struggle for unity and independence continued to fill Belgium’s history. In the ensuing period of national trials, the political disruption of the country is manifested by the growth of civic communities. Belgium became in turn a Burgundian, an Austrian and a Spanish province. The golden age of the Burgundian period brought prosperity to the land, but economic decadence accompanied the prolonged strife between Hapsburgs and Bourbons. It was Belgium’s misfortune to be the scene on which the rivalry was fought out. With a population reduced by the horrors of war, Belgium emerged from under the heel of Spanish oppression only to fall successively under Austrian, French and Dutch domination. But the seed of nationality, planted upon its uncertain soil when the valley of the Schelde became part of Burgundy, sheltered a smouldering vitality which, finally, in the nineteenth century was fanned to independence.
The line of contact between French and the languages belonging to the Germanic group begins at the sea on French soil. Starting a few miles west of Dunkirk,[8] the linguistic divide follows a direction which is generally parallel to the political boundary between France and Belgium until, a few miles east of Aire, it strikes northeast to Halluin, which remains within the area of French speech. From this point on to Sicken-Sussen, near the German border, the line assumes an almost due east trend.
This division corresponds broadly to the mountainous and depressed areas into which Belgium is divided. The upland has always been the home of French. Walloon is but a modified form of the old langue d’oïl.[9] Flemish, on the other hand, is a Germanic language which spread over Belgian lowlands as naturally as the Low German dialects to which it is related had invaded the plains of northern Europe. This east-west line also marks the separation of the tall, blond, long-skulled Flemings from the short, dark, round-skull Alpine Walloons.
The remarkably straight course of the linguistic divide, in Belgian territory, is generally regarded as an effect of the plain over which it extends. Whatever ruggedness it may have once possessed has been smoothed away in the course of centuries by the ease with which either Flemish or French could spread in the low-lying flatland. The two languages have now been facing each other for about four centuries. Place names indicate that the variations of the line have been slight. It is a rare occurrence to find Roman village names north of its present extension. Teutonic roots, in locality names to the south, are likewise unusual. A few can be traced. Waterloo, Tubize, Clabecq, Ohain were once Flemish settlements. Tubize was originally known as Tweebeek and became a Walloon center in the fifteenth century. Ohain likewise is known in the form of Olhem in twelfth century documents.
Belgium’s linguistic dualism prevailed throughout the five centuries of the Roman occupation. Intercourse at that time between the Belgae dwelling south of the Via Agrippa, and the Romans who were pushing steadily northwards was frequent and intimate. The Latin of the Roman invaders, modified by the Celtic and Germanic of native populations, gave birth eventually to the Walloon of subsequent times.[10] The Belgae of the lowlands farther north, however, successfully resisted the efforts made by the Romans to conquer them. The marshes of their nether country, and the forested area which was to be laid bare by the monks of the Middle Ages, constituted a stronghold in the shelter of which Germanic dialects took root. This forested area—the Sylva Carbonaria of the Romans—was the chief geographical feature which prevented thorough fusion of Flemings and Walloons. It was the westernmost extension of the Ardennes forests and its gloomy solitudes covered the largest part of the territory which has since become the province of Hainaut. Beyond its northern boundary lay the lands of Teutonic culture and language. To the Flemings, living north of the wooded curtain, the Gallo-Romans, who became known as Walloons, were the Walas or “foreigners” who dwelt south of the tree-studded barrier. A sharply defined line of separation intensified, in this manner, all pre-existing racial differences.
At a later date, the growth of the temporal power of the Roman Church resulted in the establishment of a number of bishoprics over districts segregated irrespectively of linguistic differences. Perhaps one of the most striking features of Belgian history is found in the fact that its linguistic and political boundaries have never coincided. Every century is marked by renewal of the age-long clashes between the northern and southern races which have been thrown in contact along the western end of the line which separates the plains of northern Europe from the mountainous southland of the continent.
It may be gathered from all this that the linguistic line of cleavage has undergone very little modification in the course of centuries.[11] It now divides the country into a northern section, the inhabitants of which consider Flemish as their vernacular, but who also generally understand French, and a southern section peopled by French-speaking inhabitants, who adhere to the use of Walloon dialects in the intimacy of their home life. To the east, the political frontier between Belgium and Germany does not divide the two countries linguistically. Within Prussian territory, Malmedy and a group of fifteen villages are inhabited by a French-speaking folk. As though to offset this intrusion of French speech on Prussian soil, a corresponding area of German speech is found in the Belgian province of Luxemburg around Arlon.[12] Altogether about 31,500 Belgians employ German as a vernacular.
The American Geographical Society of New York
Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe, 1917, Pl. I
THE FRANCO-FLEMISH LINGUISTIC BOUNDARY
The figures of the last (Dec. 31, 1910) Belgian census[13] show that the Flemish provinces are bilingual, whereas the Walloon region is altogether French. Knowledge of French as an educational and business requirement accounts for its occurrence in Flanders. The Romance language, therefore, tends to supersede the Germanic idiom as a national vernacular. The utter absence of Flemish in the Belgian Congo constitutes perhaps the strongest evidence in favor of French as Belgium’s national language.
In northwestern France, the language of the plain has, since the thirteenth century, steadily receded before the uplander’s speech. At that time Flemish was spoken as far south as the region between Boulogne and Aire.[14] The area spreading east of the Atlantic, between the present linguistic boundary and a line connecting these two cities, is now bilingual with French predominating. It might be noted here, however, that Boulogne has been a French-speaking city since Frankish days.
The use of Flemish in France is restricted to the two arrondissements of Dunkirk and Hazebrouck as well as to a few communes of Lille. Dewachter’s studies[15] in this locality have been summarized by Blanchard.[16] According to these investigations, the arrondissement of Dunkirk contains 41 Flemish-speaking communes, four of purely French language and 20 of dual speech. Of the last, only five reveal a majority of Flemish speakers. In Hazebrouck there are 36 Flemish communes, eight French and nine bilingual. Five of the latter show French predominance. In the arrondissement of Lille, Flemish is spoken only in six bilingual communes, four of which have a majority of French-speaking residents. Furthermore a few Flemish-speaking families are found in the suburbs of St. Omer as well as in a commune near by. About one-third of the inhabitants