PROGRESS OF ROMANCE PHILOLOGY 247 



It was only by notably weakening classic culture that the invasions 

 hastened the arrival of the vulgar idioms to the dignity of written 

 languages. 



The question as to within what limits and to what degree the 

 Roman Empire was Latinized probably will never be answered in a 

 complete and entirely satisfactory way. The fact itself, which we must 

 needs accept as certain, is apparently paradoxical. Peoples who were 

 by no means uncivilized, the Celts, for example, and especially the 

 Etruscans, were brought in three or four centuries to the point of 

 giving up their own language and adopting that of their conquerors. 

 How is this to be explained? In our day, the substitution of one 

 language for another seems not to take place so rapidly. But the 

 fact is undeniable nevertheless. The problem attracted the atten- 

 tion of various scholars, among whom we may note Budinszky l and 

 Jung, 2 who examined and arranged the all too scanty evidence handed 

 down to us by the ancient authors. But another question immediately 

 arises. It is beyond doubt that the barbarian invasions greatly re- 

 duced the Latin-speaking territory, notably in northern Africa, on 

 the eastern and northern shores of the Adriatic, in Switzerland, 

 along the Rhine, and perhaps in England. But in other directions 

 Romance for it would no longer be correct to say Latin re- 

 covered a part of the lost territory, and even spread over regions 

 where Latin had never before penetrated. During this period of 

 propagation and differentiation of the Romance idioms, numerous 

 events occurred, both in medieval and in modern times, whose 

 investigation offers many difficulties to the philologist and to the 

 historian. 



On the other hand, it is relatively easy to determine the boundaries 

 of the present Romance-speaking world. For the past thirty years, 

 various scholars have devoted themselves to this task, and, thanks 

 to the researches of Messrs. Kurth, 3 Kiepert, 4 This, 5 Horning, 6 Zim- 

 merli, 7 and Ascoli, 8 the boundaries of the large Romance group of 

 Western Europe have been accurately fixed. In some cases, these 

 investigators have discovered varieties of Romance speech in process 

 of extinction, and even some which are but recently extinct. An 



1 Die Ausbreitung der lateinischen Sprache uber Italien und die Provinzen des 

 romischen Reiches. Berlin, 1881. 



2 Die romanischen Landschaften des romischen Reiches. Innspruck, 1881. See 

 G. Paris's review of Budinszky 's and Jung's books, in Romania, xi, 599. 



* La frontiere linguistique en-Belgique et dans le nord de la France. Bruxelles, 

 1895. 



4 Vdlker-und-Sprachenkarte von Deutschland und den Nochbarldndern im Jahre 

 1866. Berlin, 1866. (Reprinted several times.) Special-Karte der deutsch-franzo- 

 sischen Sprachgrenze. Berlin, 1871. 



8 Die Deutsch-franzosische Sprachgrenze in Lothringen. Strassburg, 1887-88. 



* Die ostfranzosischen Grenzaialekte zwischen Metz und Belfort, in Franzosische 

 Studien, vol. V. 



7 Die Deutsch-Franzosische Sprachgrenze in der Schweiz. Bale, 1891-99. 



8 Archivio glottologico italiano, vol. I. 1873. 



