Although the official language of Italy is the one which evolved out of the Tuscan dia lect, the country represents even more varieties of Romance than does France. The Gallo Roman dialects are found in Liguria, Pied mont, Lombardy and in Sardinia. Then there are the distinct Venetian, Corsican, Neapolitan, Umbrian, Abruzzan and Sicilian, which differ widely from the official language. In the northeast a line running west of Triest and east of Udine is the eastern border of the Friulan, which is sometimes considered to be a separate language, closely related to the Ladin of the Alps. This Ladin is in the west found in the Gnson region of Switzerland, in the centre in the western Tridentino, also in Switzerland, and in the eastern Tridentino and the Alto Beluno, where it also enters Italian territory. In addition to this we have Pro vencal spurs in the northwest, the .German Tredici and Sette Communi in the north, and a few Greek 'spots south of Brindisi, while about Brindisi and in a long strip to the north of it, as well as sporadically in Calabria and in Sicily, there are Albanian settlements. Out side of Italy, Italian is spoken extensively in the Argentine Republic and in the United States. We still have a Romance group in the East, whither it was transplanted during the Roman domination. As Daco-Rumanian it is spoken in Rumania proper, and the linguistic line runs far into Hungarian and Austrian territory, along an irregular line, east of Weisskirchen near the Danube, Ternesvar, Gross-Wardein, to the Theiss River. Here it turns due east, past Sziget and south of Czernowitz, after which the line runs very irregularly to the Dniester in Russia, and down the Dniester to the Black Sea. To the east of the Dniester there are a large number of Rumanian settlements, of considerable size, almost up to the Dnieper. To the west of the Dniester there are considerable Russian bases to the north of Kishinev, and the whole Black Sea littoral up to the mouth of the Danube is settled by Bulgarians. In the Dobrudja the Rumanians are almost cut off from the sea by a large Tatar region, but the whole of the Danube in the Dobrudja is Rumanian. From there to the west there are but few Rumanian settlements to the south of the Danube, ex cept for a large oasis to the northwest of Vidin, in Serbian territory. Within the com pact Rumanian region there is a solid Hun garian block from Marom Vasarhely in the west to beyond Beretsk in the east, and from near Brasov in the south to the river Maros in the north, and a large number of minor Hungarian settlements throughout the region north of Rumania proper. There are also very many German colonies throughout that region and solid German blocks around Brasov, south of Naszod, and in the Banat, which has Croa tian territory to the south and west, Hungarian territory to the north and Rumanian territory in the north and east.
The Macedo-Rumanians are found in a long oasis running north and south about Samarina, Avdela, Perivoli, Mezovon, Syraku, Kraina, in Macedonia and in scattered settle ments in Albania, almost as far as Bitolia. Of the Istro-Rumanians there are but a few isolated settlements south of Monte Maggiore, but they are rapidly adopting the Slavic lan guage of their surroundings.
(b) The Germanic We have already discussed the western limit of the Germanic languages on the Continent. In the south the line runs from Monte Rosa over the heights of the southern Alps, over the Saint Gothard, to the south of Samnaun, over Laurein, Salurn Altrel, south of Brixen, In nichen, Pontafel, Villach, Klagenfurt, Mahren berg, Mureck, Radkersberg, but from Pontafel to Radkersburg there are numerous German colonies to the south, in Slovenian territory, the largest being the one around Gottschee, while a large Slovenian settlement is found in Austrian territory. At Radkersberg the Ger
man linguistic line runs north inside Hun garian territory (through Eberau, Rechnitz, Oedenberg, around Wieselberg and Pressburg, from where it runs along the Hungarian border as far as Hohenau. Here it gradually turns in a westerly direction through Moravian and Bohemian territory, leaving Znaim, Rieger schlag, Krumau, Neumark on the Germanic side. Here it turns to the northeast, just grazing past Pilsen, Leitmeritz and Reichen berg. Then it turns southeastward in a very irregular line as far as Olmiitz and reaches Troppau in Silesia. But there are numerous German colonies in Hungary on both sides of the Danube, from Neustadt to Neusatz, and large settlements in Bohemia and Moravia about Budweis, Iglau, Landskron, Briinn, and in the Slovak country, about Kremnitz, Kas mark, Gollnitz.
From Troppau, northward to the sea, the linguistic line is very broken, there being hundreds and thousands of German colonies through Galicia, Poland and Russia, as far as the Volga. But running a straight line north ward through Oppeln to Kempen, thence to the northwest through Lissa to Bentschen and Schwerin, thence to the northeast through Bromberg, Allenstein, Goldapp, thence in a semi-circle through Eydtkuhnen to Polanzen on the sea, most of the territory to the left is German. But there is very mixed Polish strip from Bromberg to Danzig, and for a distance of some 40 miles to the west of the Vistula. Besides, to the northwest of Danzig there is a solid settlement of Kashubs, speaking a language closely related to Polish, and around Kottbus and Bauzen there are two large oases of people speaking a language in termediate between Polish and Bohemian, known as Wendish or Serbo-Lusatian. If a line be drawn from Karge in the east to Cologne and Aix-la-Chapelle in the west, the territory to the south represents the HO German, from which the official language is derived, while the northern part represents the Low German dialects. According to the Pan German atlas of 1900 the whole world is more or less German. Thus the United States are 4.6 per cent German, forming 32 per cent of the foreign-born population. Milwaukee is given there as 66 per cent German, Hoboken as 57 per cent, etc. Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil is 28 per cent German. Canada is 7 per cent, South Africa 5 per cent German, and so forth. This map explains much of the World War.
A line running from Eupen, to the south west of Aix-la-Chapelle, past Cleve, Emerich, Bentheim, Neuhaus to Emden, separates the Low German group in the east from the Dutch in the west and Frisian in the north. But a strip of territory along the western part of Jutland, as far as Tondern, including the Sylt and other islands, is also Frisian. A line run ning west and east, from below Tondern to above Flensberg, separates German from Dan ish, so that a considerable part of German Schleswig is linguistically Danish.
Denmark and Norway are linguistically al most identical, and Sweden differs from them only by a different official language. Norway and Sweden have Lap inlets, and Swedish is spoken outside of Sweden in the provinces of Esterbothnia and Nyland in Finland, and in the Aland Islands. In addition, we have the related Icelandic in Iceland.