414 AN"]SrUAL BEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1915. 



and until the 18th century the province was part of the Empire and 

 largely German speaking. This language still persists in the eastern 

 parts. The region was thus a border land disputed first by two 

 adjoining races and subsequently by two neighboring countries. 



This long period of successive conflicts necessarily witnessed modi- 

 fications of lingTiistic boundaries. Glancing as far back as the 

 end of the Middle Ages, a slight westerly advance of the area of 

 German speech may be ascertained for the period between the 10th 

 and 16th centuries.^ From that time on, however, the regional 

 gain of French has been in excess of previous German advances. 

 Data obtained from place names often afford valuable clues to 

 earlier distribution of languages in this region. Occurrences of the 

 suffix " ange," which is the Frenchified form of the German " ingen," 

 in names lying west of the present line show the extent of territor)'^ 

 reclaimed by the French language.^ 



Alsace is the region defined by the .valley of the 111. The wall 

 of the Vosges Mountains marks its western limits. Its easterly 

 extension attains the banks of the Rhine. This elongated plain 

 appears throughout history as a corridor through which races of 

 men marched and countermarched. The Alpine race provided it 

 with early inhabitants. Romans subjugated the land in the course 

 of imperial colonization. The province subsequently passed under 

 Germanic and Frankish sway. Its entry into linguistic history may 

 be reckoned from the year 842, when the celebrated oaths of Strass- 

 burg were exchanged in Romance and Teutonic vernaculars by. 

 Charles the Bald and Louis the German. The alliance of these 

 two sovereigns against Lothair at this time marked the beginnings 

 of the German destiny of Alsace. After 925 the province became 

 part of the Teutonic domain and remained German except during 

 the period of French occupation which lasted from 1681 to 1871. 



A highway of migration can not be the abode of a pure race. Its 

 inhabitants necessarily represent the successive human flows by 

 which it has been overrun.^ The Alsatian of the present day is, 

 accordingly, a product of racial mingling. But the blending has 

 conferred distinctiveness, and Alsatians claiming a nationality of 

 their own find valid argument in racial antecedents no less than in 

 geographical habitation. The red soil of their fertile plains sym- 

 bolizes the native land in their minds as it reveals itself to percep- 

 tion with the attribute of unity. Alsatians have responded to such 

 an environment to the extent of representing a distinct group in 



1 H. Wltte, Das Deutsche Spraehgebiet Lothringens und Seine Wandlungen, etc. Forsch. 

 z. Deutseh-Landes-u. Volksk., 8, 1894, pp. 407-535. 



2 L. Gallois, Lcs Limites linguistiques du frangais, Ann. de G^ogr., 9, 1900, p. 215. 



3 Anthropologic data for the southwestern section of Alsace are instructive. The gen- 

 eration of a transition type between the short and sturdy Alpine type and the " sesque- 

 pedal " Teuton is observable. Cf. Ripley, The Races of Europe, Appleton, New York, 1899, 

 pp. 225-226. 



