LINGUISTIC AEEAS IN EUROPE DOMINIAN. 423 



The southerly advance of German in the mountainous province 

 has followed the valleys of the Etsch and Eisack, showing thereby 

 that the channels through which mountain waters flowed toward 

 the Adriatic also facilitated transit of goods and the language of 

 the traders from the German highlands of central Europe to the 

 Mediterranean. A steady current of freight has been maintained 

 in a southerly course along this route since the origins of continental 

 commerce in Europe. By the Middle Ages numerous colonies of 

 German merchants had acquired solid footing along the much- 

 traveled road over the Brenner Pass, which connected Augsberg and 

 Venice.^ 



This protuberance of German occupies the valley of the Etsch 

 south of its confluence with the Eisack. The divide between the 

 two languages has its westernmost reach at Stelvio, near Trafoi.- 

 The junction of Swiss and Austrian political boundaries at this 

 point corresponds to the contact between the German of the Tyrol 

 and the Komonsh idioms of Engadine. Thence the linguistic line 

 of separation skirts the base of the Ortler massif and subsequently 

 coincides wdth the watershed of the Etsch and Noce Elvers. Ladin 

 settlements begin north of the Fleims Valley ^ and spread beyond the 

 Groden Basin to Pontebba and Malborghet, where the meeting of 

 Europe's three most important linguistic stocks, the Romanic, Ger- 

 m.anic, and Slavic, occurs. 



The Italian section of the Tyrol constitutes the Trentino of pres- 

 ent-day Italian irredentists. As early as 774 Charlemagne's division 

 of the region between the Kingdoms of Bavaria and of Italy had 

 implied recognition of linguistic variations. But the importance of 

 maintaining German control over natural lines of access to southern 

 seas determined his successors to award temporal rights in the south- 

 eastern Alps to bishops upon whose adherence to Germanic interests 

 reliance could be placed. The bishopric of Trentino thus passed 

 under the Teutonic sphere of influence, which is preserved to-day by 

 the political union of the territory of the old see to the Austrian 

 Empire. Definite annexation of the Trentino to the Province of 

 Tyrol took place in 1815. 



In its eventful history during the present millennium the Tyrol 

 has been the cockpit of Germano-Romance clashes. A lively trade 

 competition between German and Italian traders has ever been main- 

 tained within its borders. During the era of religious upheavals 

 the Germans rallied to the cause of reformation, while the Italian 

 element remained faithful to the authority of the Vatican. Contact 



1 O. Noel, Histoire du Commerce du Monde, 2, pp. 148-168. Plon, Paris, 1891. 

 - B. Auerbach, Races et Nationalites en Autriche-Hongrie, Alcan, Paris, 1898, p. 86. 

 3 Schneller, Deutsche u. Romanen in Siidtirol u, Venetien. Petermanns Mitt., 1877, pp. 

 365-385. 



