LINGUISTIC AREAS IN EUROPE — DOMINTAN. 419 



dissemination by the agency of schools and newspapers tends to 

 convert it eventually into the only idiom that will survive within 

 German boundaries. 



The transition from the northern plain of Germany to high central 

 regions is represented on the surface by a zone of intermediate up- 

 lands in Saxony, Lusatia, and Silesia. This area is also characterized 

 linguistically by a transitional form of speech between Niederdeutsch 

 and Oberdeutsch.^ The greater similarity, however, of this inter- 

 mediate language to Oberdeutsch is observable to the same extent 

 that the rising land over which it is distributed presents greater 

 analogy to the mountainous region toward which it tends. The 

 transitional dialects include Frankish, Hennebergian, and Saxon. 

 They occur in the middle Rhineland, Hesse, Thuringia, and Saxony. 



Outside this central mass of Germans living in Germany and Aus- 

 tria, the language prevails in the Baltic Provinces of Russia, where 

 Protestantism is strongly established. This region was known as the 

 German Provinces up to 1876. In that year substitution of Russian 

 to German inaugurated Russification of the area by the Government. 

 Colonies of Germans are also found in southwestern Russia from the 

 headwaters to the mouth of the Dniester. The valley of this river as 

 well as that of the Dnieper was peopled by peasants who emigrated 

 from Wiirtemberg, Saxony, and Switzerland during the reign of 

 Catharine the Great. Many of the settlements still bear German 

 names. The presence of Teutons in this part of Russia is devoid, 

 however, of political significance. 



5. THE DAI^ISH-GERMAN BOUNDARY. 



Lack of conformity between political and linguistic boundaries 

 along the Danish-German frontier has caused ceaseless strife between 

 the two nationalities. Denmark's hold on Schleswig-Holstein prior 

 to 1866 had engendered bitter feeling among Germans who con- 

 sidered the subjection of their kinsmen settled on the right bank of 

 the Elbe estuary as unnatural. After Prussia had annexed the con- 

 tested region it was the Danes' turn to feel dissatisfied and to claim 

 the districts occupied by their countrymen. 



The present Danish-speaking population of Schleswig-Holstein is 

 variously estimated at between 140,000 and 150,000. These subjects 

 of the Kaiser occupy the territory south of the Danish boundary to a 

 line formed by the western section of the Lecker Au, the southern 

 border of the swampy region extending south of Renz and the north- 

 ern extension of the Angeln Hills. Between this line and the area in 



1 Cf. Sheets 12a, Europa, Fluss-Gebirgskarte, and 12c, Europa, Sprachen and Volker- 

 karte, both 1 : 12,000,000, in Debes' Handatlas. 



