442 ANNUAL BEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1915. 



the majority of the inhabitants.^ The Hellenic government, taking 

 advantage of disturbances in Albania and tlie European war of 

 1914, despatched troops in the territory claimed by its citizens. As 

 a result of this invasion the Albanian area of Greek speech is at this 

 writing under Greek military occupation.^ 



The inhabitants of Albania are utterly devoid of national feel- 

 ing. The formation of this independent state was a political move 

 undertaken by Austrian statesmen to prevent expansion of Serbia to 

 the Adriatic. Within the boundaries determined by the ambassa- 

 dorial conference held in London in 1913, strife and dissensions pre- 

 vail to-day as intensely as during the Turkish regime. Natives of 

 the northern sections of the country speak Serbian dialects and are 

 inclined to favor union with Serbia or Montenegro rather than inde- 

 pendence. Malissori tribesmen fought side by side with Monte- 

 negrin troops in the fall of 1912, while the Albanians of Ipek gave 

 assistance to Turkish regulars. The inhabitants of the valley of the 

 upper Morava sent supplies to Serbian troops against which the 

 chieftains of central Albania led their men. The purest type of 

 Albanian found in the vicinity of Elbassan, Koritza, and Avlona® 

 is practically submerged in a sea of Greeks. Under these circum- 

 stances partition of the country between Greece and Serbia might 

 not be incompatible with native aspirations. Departure from lin- 

 guistic differentiation in this case would probably be attended by 

 political stability which could not be provided in any other manner. 



17. CONCLUSIONS. 



Certain inferences engage attention in this study of linguistic areas. 

 Inspection of the map of Europe prepared for this article suggests 

 strikingly that zones of linguistic contact were inevitably destined by 

 their very location to become meeting places for men speaking different 

 languages. They correspond to the areas of circulation defined by 

 Eatzel.* The confusion of languages on their site is in almost every 

 instance the result of human intercourse determined b}'^ economic 

 advantages. In Belgium after the Norman conquest the burghers of 

 Flanders were able to draw on English markets for the wool which 

 they converted into the cloth that gave their country fame in the 

 fairs of Picardy and ChampagTie.^ We have here a typical example 

 of Ratzel's " Stapellandern " or " transit regions." In a cross direc- 



1 R. Hiiber, Carte Statistique des Cultes Chretiens. 1 : 600,000. Baader & Gross, Cairo, 

 1910. 



2 L. Biichner, Die neue griechisch-albanische Grenze in Nordepirus. Petermanns Mitt. 

 61, 1915, February, p. 68. 



3 G. Gravier, L'Albauie et scs limites. Rev. de Paris, Jan. 1, 1913, pp. 200-224. 



*F. Ratzel, Politiscbe Geographie, 2d ed. Oldenbourg, Munich, 1903. Cf. chap. 16, 

 " Der Verkehr als Raumbewaltiger," pp. 447-534. 

 ^R. Blanchard, La Flandre, Colin, Paris, 1906. 



