LINGUISTIC AREAS IN EUROPE — DOMINIAN. 411 



2. THE FRANCO-FLEMISH LINGUISTIC BOUNDARY. 



The westernmost contact between Romance and Teutonic lan- 

 guages occurs in French Flanders and Belgium. Starting at a few 

 miles south of Dunkirk/ the linguistic divide follows a direction 

 which is generally parallel to the political boundary until, at a few 

 miles east of Aire, it strikes northeast to Halluin, which remains 

 within the area of French speech. From here on to Sicken-Sussen, 

 near the German border, the line assumes an almost due east trend. 



This division corresponds to the mountainous and depressed 

 areas into which Belgium is divided. The upland has ever been 

 the home of French. Walloon is but a modified form of the old 

 langue d'oi'l.^ Flemish, on the other hand, is a Germanic language 

 which spread over Belgian lowlands as naturally as the Nieder- 

 deutsch dialects to which it is related had invaded the plains of 

 northern Europe. This east-west line also marks the separation of 

 the tall, blond, long-skull Flemings from the short, dark, round- 

 skull Alpine Walloons. 



In northwestern France the langiiage of the plain has steadily 

 receded since the thirteenth century before the uplander's speech.^ 

 At that time Flemish was spoken as far south as the region between 

 Boulogne and Aire. The area spreading east of the Strait of Dover 

 between the present linguistic boundary and a line connecting these 

 two cities is now bilingual, with French predominating. It might 

 be noted here, however, that Boulogne has been a city of French 

 langiiage since Frankish days. 



Within Belgian territory the linguistic line has sustained slight 

 modification in the course of centuries. The country may be con- 

 veniently divided into a northern section, the inhabitants of which 

 consider Flemish as their vernacular, but who also generally know 

 French, and a southern section peopled by French-speaking inhabit- 

 ants who adhere to the use of Walloon dialects in the intimacy of 

 their home life. A small area in eastern Belgium is peopled by 

 Germans.* 



The figures of the last (Dec. 31, 1910) Belgian census^ show^ that 

 the Flemish provinces are bilingual, whereas the Walloon region is 



1 G. Kurth, La Frontiere Linguistique en Belgique et dans le Nord de la Fi-auoe. M^m. 

 couronnes, Acad. R. Sci. Let. et Beaux-Arts de Belg., 48, voL 1, 1895, vol. 2, 1808, Brux- 

 elles ; Map, 1 : 400,000 published in Feb., 1900. 



- Cf. map : Ausbreitung der Romanischen Spiachen in Europa. 1 : 8,000,000. Grobei-'s 

 Grundiiss der Romanischen Philologie, Triibner, Strassburg, 1904-1906. See also Gillierou 

 et Edmont. Atlas Linguistique de la France, Champion. Paris. 



3 Kurth, loc. cit. Kurth's work is based partly on toponymic data ; its value as an etiiuo- 

 graphic document equals its importance as a contribution to the distribution of languages 

 in western Europe. L. De Backer, La Langue flamaude en France. Samyn, Gand, 189". 



* N. Warker, Die deutschen Orts- und Gewassernamen der Belgischen Proviui; Luxem- 

 burg, Deut. Erde, vol. 8, 1909, pp. 99, 139. Maps important. 



^ Statistlque de la Belgique, Recensement g6nei"al de 1910, vol. 2, 1912, vol. 3, 1913, 

 Bruxelles. 



