TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
Footnote anchors are denoted by [number], and the footnotes have beenplaced at the end of each chapter.
Some minor changes to the text are noted at the end of the book.
THE FRONTIERS OF
LANGUAGE AND NATIONALITY
IN EUROPE
BY
LEON DOMINIAN
PUBLISHED FOR
THE AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY
OF NEW YORK
BY
HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY
1917
Copyright, 1917,
BY
THE AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK
THE QUINN & BODEN CO. PRESS
RAHWAY, N. J.
To my Alma Mater
Robert College of Constantinople
PREFACE
This book is submitted as a study in applied geography. Itspreparation grew out of a desire to trace the connection existingbetween linguistic areas in Europe and the subdivision of thecontinent into nations. The endeavor has been made to showthat language exerts a strong formative influence on nationalitybecause words express thoughts and ideals. But underlying thecurrents of national feeling, or of speech, is found the persistentaction of the land, or geography, which like the recurrent motifof an operatic composition prevails from beginning to end ofthe orchestration and endows it with unity of theme. Uponthese foundations, linguistic frontiers deserve recognition as thesymbol of the divide between distinct sets of economic and socialconditions.
The attention bestowed on the Turkish area has been determinedby the bearing of the Turkish situation on European internationalaffairs and in the earnest belief that the application ofgeographical knowledge could provide an acceptable settlement ofthe Eastern Question. Never has it been realized better than atthe present time that an ill-adjusted boundary is a hatching-ovenfor war. A scientific boundary, on the other hand, prepares theway for permanent goodwill between peoples.
My effort has been directed to confine the work to a presentationof facts, as I have felt that the solution of the boundaryproblems involved could not be reached satisfactorily by individualopinion. Should these pages afford a working basis, or provesuggestive, in the settlement of European boundary conflicts, Ishall feel compensated for the time and labor bestowed on thecollection of the material herein contained.
My thanks are due to the American Geographical Society forthe liberal spirit displayed in promoting my efforts and particularlyfor the colored maps which illustrate the text. I am under[viii]special obligations to Councilor Madison Grant of the Society fornew views and a better insight into the significance of race inEuropean history. To Dr. Isaiah Bowman, Director of the Society,the extent of my debt would be difficult to estimate, as his interestin my work has been unfailing in spite of the pressur