BORDERLANDS OF ITALIAN LANGUAGE
Italy’s early history is molded by the shape of the land and its
natural divisions. In the beginning, each valley was a tribal
seat. The basin of the Po was the home of Celtic-speaking Gauls.
Etruscans, whose early language cannot fit into the Indo-European
group, peopled Tuscany. Greeks settled in southern Italy in
numbers sufficiently large to bestow the name of Magna Graecia
on the districts they occupied. The welding of these territorial
elements into the Roman state was attended by the spread of the
Latin language within the land. Rome’s Latin eventually reached far
beyond peninsular frontiers.
Modern Italian nationality did not, however, acquire concrete
expression before the nineteenth century. For fully two hundred
years prior to that time the Hapsburgs had steadily encroached
on Italian territory. It remained for the democratic ideals of
the French Revolution to become the moving force in the shaping
of Italian nationality. Unity of language favored its rapid
development. Beginning with Piedmont in the first half of the
nineteenth century Italy grew to its present extent by the addition
of territory to the south. Lombardy was added in 1859, Tuscany and
the kingdom of Two Sicilies in 1860, Venetia in 1866 and the Papal
States in 1870. Prior to these years Italian national aspirations
had found solace in a Venetian saying, expressive of Austrian
covetings, “Carta tua, montagna mia,” which may be rendered as
“Yours is the map, but mine the land.” Since then, a people
speaking the same language has become united into a single nation
on the Italian peninsula. The land frontier of Italy, however, has
remained to this day a zone of linguistic mingling.
Districts of non-Italian languages are occupied by populations
made up of descendants of immigrants from beyond the Alps or
from beyond the seas. Six foreign linguistic groups can be
distinguished, to wit: (1) Franco-Provençal, (2) German, (3)
Slovene, (4) Albanian, (5) Greek, (6) Catalan.[48] The political
significance to be attached to these settlements is slight, as they
contain a negligible proportion of the kingdom’s population. The
foreign languages are used only in the home. Beyond the threshold
Italian prevails everywhere.
Franco-Provençal dialects are in current use among the dwellers
of the Stura, Orco and Doire Baltée valleys. In the province
(_circondario_) of Aosta the foreign language was current in over
70 villages (_communi_) at the time of the census of 1901. The
province of Pignerol boasted of the two communi of Praly and San
Martino di Perrero in which the same French dialects prevailed.
The names of the communi of Beaulard, Bousson, Champlas du Col,
Clavières, Fenils, Mollières, Rochemolles, Salbertrand, Sauze
d’Oulx, Solomiac and Thures, all in the circondario of Suse,
likewise indicate the presence of French-speaking inhabitants. It
was computed that the language was used in the daily life of 18,958
families out of the 30,401 recorded in the census of that year.
The average number of individuals to a family being 4.22 in those
districts, it follows that about 80,000 subjects of the king of
Italy speak a French dialect. In 1862, French was spoken by 76,736
inhabitants of the valley of Aosta. The importance of the language
has hardly changed since then, as it has remained the medium of
church, school and general culture. Nevertheless the use of French
dialects is on the wane in the circondarii of Pignerol and Suse
since the reconstitution of Italy.
Planted between France and Italy, Piedmont became a connecting
province in which the transition from one country to the other can
be followed. Its rôle is analogous to that of Alsace-Lorraine on
the confines of the French and the German languages. French taste
and mode of living prevail in many sections of Piedmont. Turin
strikes travelers proceeding from southern Italy as being in many
respects a city of French customs. The French spoken in Italy also
represents a transition speech between the langue d’oïl and the
langue d’oc. It has close analogy with the patois spoken in French
Switzerland, the Dauphiné, the Lyonnais and the valley of Aosta.
All these regions once formed part of the kingdom of Burgundy.
[Illustration:
FIG. 21--Map showing some of the important localities of French
speech in Northwestern Italy.]
The French vernacular of thousands of Piedmontese is furthermore
related to the cause of Protestantism, which has taken solid root
in this mountain land in spite of the persecutions to which it had
been formerly subjected. As used by the natives of the region the
local dialect consists, more properly, of a modern form of an old
langue d’oc dialect similar to the patois of various districts
in the French High Alps. To the Protestant inhabitants of these
mountain communities French has served as the only medium of
intercourse with their co-religionists in Switzerland and France.
The little village of Torre Pellice, on a small mountain railway
leading into one of the main valleys of Piedmont, offers
the strange contrast of being peopled by inhabitants whose
language is French, while their customs are Italian, and their
religion Protestant. The austerity of their manners recalls at
first impression the natural gravity of mind observable among
French-speaking Swiss who belong to the same faith. Ampler
acquaintance with the simple mountaineers will draw out their pride
of being descendants of Protestants whose religious views antedate
Luther’s preaching by fully three centuries.
History and geography have concurred in the preservation of
religious and linguistic individuality in the three Valdese
valleys. Their inhabitants are sons of twelfth and thirteenth
century heretics known by the names of Albigenses, Lollards,
Cathars or Vaudois, against all of whom the persecution of the
Roman church was directed. Massacres and forced conversions
uprooted heresies everywhere in Europe except in the high valleys
of Piedmont. Here the arduous character of the region afforded
defense against the organized bands sent to conquer early adherents
of reformed doctrines. The narrow gorges became the theater of
bloody affrays in which victory would sometimes favor the attacking
foreigners and sometimes the besieged. No definite conquest of the
mountain zone was ever made by the Catholic armies. The surname
of Israel of the Alps, bestowed locally on the village of Torre
Pellice, is a memorial of this period of religious struggle.
An episode in this long contest, which is not unrelated to the
current prevalence of French, took place in 1630. The operations
of the army sent by Richelieu in that year were followed by an
epidemic of plague to which thousands of natives succumbed. Many
of the community’s religious leaders were carried off by the dread
disease. Their places were taken by pastors and preachers who came
from Geneva or the Protestant towns of France. From this period on
religious services were carried on in French. The influence of the
language spread beyond the rough mountain sanctuaries to which it
was at first confined. In such retired valleys cultural influences
generally emanate from the church, a fact observable particularly
in the mountainous portions of Asia. Today along with the memory of
former struggles the language, which was partly a result of their
bitterness, has survived. To the highlander of western Piedmont,
French is the symbol of successful resistance against religious
oppression. He clings to it and will not tolerate Italian in its
place. His mountain villages are in fact the nursery of hundreds of
teachers of French employed in Italian schools.
The Franco-Italian linguistic boundary starts at Monte Rosa and
extends south, past Gressoney, into the valley of the Doire Baltée,
to the town of Settimo Vitone. French has always predominated in
this region. It is at present the vernacular of the well-to-do
inhabitants and is taught in schools concurrently with Italian.
Thence to the west the linguistic boundary passes south of Grand
Paradis Peak and attains the political boundary at the sources of
the Orco river. Linguistic and political boundaries coincide in the
next 27 miles, the line passing through a mountainous and scantily
settled region.
North of Suse, linguistic and political lines diverge from each
other. The former crosses the Doire Ripaire at about five miles
east of the town. It then extends in a southerly direction to
Pérouse on the Ghison river and traverses the Pellice where the
river leaves the highland. The Po is attained near Monte Viso and
the political frontier. From the latter peak the line reaches
Sampeyre, beyond which it crosses the Stura at Vinadio. The
Franco-Italian boundary is reached once more at a few miles east of
Lantosque. From here on to the sea Italian speech invades French
territory.
The structure of the Alps has contributed powerfully to the
peopling of a part of the basin of the Po by a Celtic-speaking
race. In Turin the name of the Taurins, a Celto-Ligurian tribe,
has been preserved to this day. Alpine valleys converge towards
the east and diverge towards the west. Human migrations have,
therefore, been more intense from west to east than in the opposite
direction. Western Piedmont thus passed under French influence
after the Middle Ages. At that time the counts of Savoy obtained
possession of the country around Suse and Turin. Later they added
all of Piedmont to their domain. The upper valley of the Doire
Ripaire was part of the French kingdom until the treaty of Utrecht
in 1715.
From the Mediterranean northward, the last section of the
Franco-Italian linguistic boundary traverses French soil and
coincides roughly with the crest of the eastern watershed of the
Var. This region is known administratively as the Département des
Alpes-Maritimes. Linguistic unity within its boundaries has been
determined mainly by the relief of the land.[49] Practically every
one of the high Alpine valleys debouches into the Var. Connection
between the sea and the mountain districts is obtained through
the channels of this basin. Intercourse among the inhabitants of
the département has thus been reflected towards France rather
than Italy. The langue d’oc prevails in the entire Var system,
but Genoese dialects of Italy, or the “si” languages, appear
immediately to the west. The linguistic divide can, therefore, be
located between the valley of the Var on the one side and those
of the Roya and Bévéra on the other. It should be made to pass,
according to Funel,[50] at the very point in La Turbie where
Augustus, a Roman emperor, erected a monument to mark the boundary
between his domain and Gaul. The inhabitants of the eastern
section of this line appear, however, to be content with French
nationality in spite of their Ligurian dialects. At the time Of the
rectification of this frontier in 1860, their French leanings were
proclaimed in a referendum which set forth their desire to acquire
citizenship under the French tricolor.
[Illustration:
FIG. 22--The dotted line indicates the divide between the areas
of French and Italian language. Black dots near the Swiss border
show Italian villages where German is the vernacular of the
natives.]
The city of Alghero and its environs in the island of Sardinia
contain a colony of Catalonians whose language is identical with
the vernacular in use on the Balearic islands. This group consists
of 9,800 individuals out of a total of 10,741 inhabitants of the
commune of Alghero. In 1862 this small community comprised 7,036
individuals. This rooting of a Spanish dialect on an Italian
island is traced to the year 1354 when the Aragonians conquered
Sardinia. The long period of Spanish rule over the island accounts
for the survival of the language to this day.
The southern boundary of German speech abuts against Italian
from Switzerland[51] to the Carinthian hills.[52] The intrusion
of the Romanic tongue within the Austrian political line lacks
homogeneity, however, for it is Italian proper in western Tyrol
and Ladin in its western extension. But of the 400 odd miles of
boundary between Austria and Italy a bare 60 will coincide with the
linguistic divide between German and Italian. Moreover a number of
enclaves of German speech exist within the area of Italian language
spreading over Austrian territory. Some of these German settlements
are found near Pergine and Fersina. Close to the Italian frontier,
the town of Casotto in the Lavarone region is likewise peopled by
German-speaking inhabitants.[53]
[Illustration:
FIG. 23--The rearland of Nice as typified by this view of the
Mediterranean Alps contains numerous bilingual settlements. The
bridge in the photograph is the Pont du Loup.]
[Illustration:
FIG. 24--Nice with its pleasant approach and its Alpine
background is built on the transition area between French and
Italian language.]
German is the vernacular of two small districts within Italian
boundaries which adjoin the Swiss frontier and lie in the Alpine
valleys of Piedmont. The most important of the two is situated
south of Monte Rosa. It comprises the three adjacent valleys
of Gressoney, Sesia and Macugnaga. The other is found in the
Val Formazza or upper valley of the Toce. Both of these groups
are extensions of the area of German speech which spreads over
the eastern portion of the canton of Valais. This section of
Switzerland was swamped between the ninth and sixteenth centuries
by a flood of Teutonic invaders consisting mainly of Alemannic
tribes[54] proceeding from the Bernese Oberland. All of the
upper Valais, from Münster as far as Loeche and Zermatt, became
Germanized during that period. The easterly spread of this movement
led a number of German-speaking colonists to cross Gries Pass into
the Formazza valley, while others went through the passes of Monte
Moro and Monte Theodule to the upper valleys of Piedmont. According
to historical documents the German settlers reached the shores
of Lake Maggiore. But their language became lost in the midst
of Italian speech and held its own only in the valleys already
mentioned.
The Piedmontese group of German dialects occurs in small
settlements distributed on the southern slopes of Monte Rosa. The
most noteworthy localities of Teutonic speech are Gressoney, Saint
Jean, Gressoney-La Trinité and Issime. Dialects belonging to the
same group occur in the Alagna and Rima S. Giuseppe villages, in
Valsesia as well as in the Agaro, Formazza, Macugnaga and Salecchio
localities of the Ossola valley. Altogether these settlements
contain about 5,000 German-speaking inhabitants. Occupation of the
region by Germans dates from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
when emigration into upper Valais took place. The language once
extended as far south as the Ornavasso. Its progress during the
past half century has been insignificant.
Val Formazza comprises the entire upper valley of the Toce, north
of Foppiano. The region is locally known as Val d’Antigorio in
its southern stretch. To the north, from Domodossola onward,
it acquires the name of Val d’Ossola. It has seven settlements
scattered along the banks of the river and contains a population of
about 800 inhabitants engaged chiefly in cattle-raising. La Chiesa
is its most important village. The region is noted in the list of
scenic spots of northern Italy on account of the Toce falls, which
attract a large number of tourists. The dual character of its human
institutions is reflected in the names of its villages, which are
both Italian and German. Foppiano is also known as Unterwald; La
Chiesa as Andermatten; San Michele as Pommat; Canza as Fruttwald.
German names are gradually being dropped, however, concurrently
with the steady replacement of the Teutonic language by Italian.
All these valleys are bridges which connect the areas of Italian
and German. Travelers are struck by the transitional character of
every human manifestation within their boundaries. As one proceeds
northwards from the main Italian area, the type of stone habitation
characteristic of Italian villages gives way to the wooden house
of German villages. Examples of both styles are in evidence
throughout the settlements of German speech on Italian soil. The
native costume of the women also recalls the intermediary character
of the region. Black skirts as well as high and tight waists, of
the same color, are characteristic of the canton of Valais. The
headdress--an ample foulard of black interspersed with green and
red--worn close, is of unmistakable Italian origin. The style in
which middle-aged native women comb their hair is also Italian.
They part it into a number of small plaits held together by
metallic combs after a fashion seen among elderly dames in Lombardy.
The eastern borderland of Italian language contains German-speaking
inhabitants in the provinces of Verona, Vicenza, Belluno and Udine,
who are living witnesses of the early German settlements founded as
trading posts on the way to the Adriatic coast. Bavaria provided
many of these emigrants in the beginning of the thirteenth century.
The language spoken by their descendants is known locally as
Cimbro. It has practically disappeared from the Veronese district,
where its survival is traced in the forested areas of the “commune”
of Progno through some 50 inhabitants. The inhabitants of the
communes of Sappada and Sauris and of the Timau district in the
Paluzza commune also employ German. It is estimated that 1,170
families, representing about 5,500 inhabitants, speak Teutonic
dialects in these Venetian districts of Italy.
[Illustration:
FIG. 25--The localities of German speech in the Sette Communi
districts of Italy are underlined. The broken line indicates the
Austro-Italian frontier.]
South of the Dolomite Alps the tableland of the Sette Communi is
also inhabited by German-speaking subjects of the king of Italy.
Teutonic dialects have survived in seven villages scattered in the
adjoining valleys of the Upper Astico and the middle Brenta. These
communities formed the regency of the Sette Communi, which from
1259 to 1807 was an independent state. Rotzo, the westernmost and
oldest, has a splendid location in the wooded area at the outlet
of Val Martello. In Roana to the east over five hundred families
still employ the German dialect as their vernacular. At Asiago,
however, the German element has almost disappeared, although during
the Middle Ages the town was an important center of Teutonism,
as is testified by the historical collections deposited in its
museums. Gallio is known in history as a trading center of local
magnitude. Enego, the last settlement towards the east, was founded
before its Teutonization, for it was a Roman colony. San Giacomo di
Lusiana is the only settlement of German speech beyond the plateau
borders. Its situation on the southern slope brought it within the
sphere of Venetian influence to a degree never felt by its sister
communities.
Past the Italian frontier, traveling towards Trent, every town and
village of the valley of the Adige bears an Italian name and is
peopled by Italians. Ala, Mori, Rovereto and Calliano are types of
these Italian communities within Austrian territory. These small
towns, scattered along the banks of the river which brought life
to the region, are peopled mainly by farmers. The valley in which
they are found has played an important part in Italian history.
In ancient times barbarian invaders marched to the conquest of
the peninsula through its conveniently situated gap. During three
centuries the armor-clad troops sent by German emperors to crush
revolts in Cisalpine cities crossed the Alps at the Brenner Pass
and followed the channel of the Adige as it broadened towards the
south. Down the same valley Austrian regiments poured into Lombardy
in 1860, when the plainsmen gave signs of readiness to revolt
from foreign rule. Modern changes have failed to detract from the
importance of this ancient highway, for the shortest railroad route
connecting Italy with central Germany is constructed along the
natural groove carved by the southward flowing waters of the Adige,
and the transit trade between the two countries follows its channel.
The most important Germanic invasion of the Trentino in historical
times began in 375 A.D. and lasted two centuries. This movement
was repeated in the last half of the tenth century. Under the rule
of the bishop-prince Frederick of Vanga, a considerable number of
German settlers established themselves on his territory between the
years 1207 and 1218. The actual Germanization of the highlanders
of the southern Tyrol had its start in this period, the records
of the time showing changes from Italian to German in the names
of localities as lands and estates were acquired by Germans. But
throughout medieval times and to the end of the eighteenth century,
historical records make mention of the Florentine character of its
industrial and commercial life.
[Illustration:
FIG. 26--View of the historic Brenner Puss. Through this mountain
gap Teutonic invaders have poured into Italy since the dawn of
history.]
[Illustration:
FIG. 27--The mountain settlement of Cortina in the Ampezzo
district in the Trentino is inhabited mainly by Italians.]
[Illustration:
FIG. 28--The approach to Meran in the Austrian Tyrol and at the
Italo-Germanic language border.]
[Illustration:
FIG. 29--Stelvio Pass at the eastern edge of the area of Romansh
dialects, showing the mountainous character of the country in
which this language has survived.]
The southerly advance of the German language in the mountainous
province has followed the valleys of the Etsch and Eisack, for
the channels through which mountain waters flowed towards the
Adriatic also facilitated the transportation of goods 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 beginning of continental commerce in Europe.
In the Middle Ages numerous colonies of German traders had acquired
solid footing along the much traveled road over the Brenner Pass
which connected Augsburg and Venice.[55]
[Illustration:
FIG. 30--Sketch map of the Trentino showing languages spoken.
Scale, 1:2,400,000.]
Early activity of German traders stamped its imprint on the
linguistic map by a wedge of Teutonic speech thrust towards the
Trentino, between Italian on the west and Ladin on the east. This
linguistic protuberance occupies the valley of the Etsch south
of its confluence with the Eisack. The divide between the two
languages has its westernmost reach near Trafoi,[56] known also as
Travis. The junction of Swiss and Austrian political boundaries at
this point corresponds to the contact between the German of the
Tyrol and the Romanic idioms of Engadine. Thence, the linguistic
line of separation skirts the base of the Ortler massif and
subsequently coincides with the watershed of the Etsch and Noce
rivers. Ladin settlements begin north of the Fleims valley[57] and
spread beyond the Gradena basin (Grödenthal) to Pontebba (Pontafel)
and Malborghet where the meeting of Europe’s three most important
linguistic stocks, the Romanic, Germanic and Slavic, occurs.
The language spoken by the Italians of the Trentino consists of
Lombard and Venetian dialects. Ladin dialects are spoken in some of
the small valleys east of the Adige. In the valley of Monastero,
near the Swiss frontier, the inhabitants speak a dialect of Ladin
or Romansh which is akin to Friulian. This patois was in greater
use during the Middle Ages. The Ladins, both in Austria and Italy,
are Italians in every respect save that of language, although
here also the two peoples are closely related. Ladin language is
a slightly altered form of Latin containing words of non-Romanic
stock which differ according to the locality overrun by the Romans.
The same definition applies to the Romansh language of Switzerland.
Romansh and Ladin are therefore basically Latin languages which
did not develop to the stage of Italian or French and which differ
from each other in the number of pre-Roman words they contain.
Friulian belongs to the same category of Romance languages and
differs from Ladin merely in having a larger proportion of Italian
words. Like Ladin it is not a literary language and is therefore
being superseded by Italian. Romansh dialects of Switzerland will
probably survive longer since in the canton of Grisons they are
recognized as official together with German and Italian, and in
Engadine Romansh is still a literary dialect.
The claims of Italy in the Trentino include[58] the Bolzano
district lying at the confluence of the Isarco and the Adige. This
locality is peopled by 16,000 Germans and 4,000 Italians. Meran,
the upper valleys Of the Adige and Isarco together with their
affluents, Bressanone on the Isarco, and Bruneco on the Rienza
likewise fall within the territory claimed by Italy. A return to
the Italian fold of the small groups of Italians scattered between
Salorno and Bolzano, between Bolzano and Meran and between Bruneco
and Bressanone is shown in this manner to lie within the realm of
possibility. As early as 774 Charlemagne’s division of the region
between the kingdoms of Bavaria and 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 southeastern 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. The present political union of the
territory of the old see with the Austrian Empire is hence a relic
of medieval German politics.
Historically the Trentino’s connection with Italy rests on ancient
foundations. At the height of Roman power Tridentium was an
important city. It was situated in the tenth Italian region, known
as Venetia et Histria. After the fall of the western Empire it was
included in the Italian districts conquered by the Ostrogoths
and Byzantines. Under the Lombards Trent became the capital of a
dukedom. In the Romano-Germanic feudal period it was part of the
kingdom of Italy constituted by Charles the Great, and later, of
the Marches of Verona established by Otto I. Conrad II in 1027
turned the region over to religious ownership. From this date on
it is known as the princely bishopric of Trent. The bishop-princes
who ruled in the Trentino, however, were constantly at war with
the feudal lords who had authority over the lands north and south
of the Trentino. In the sixteenth century the court of Bernardo
Clesio, one of the most famous of these religious rulers, was
distinctly Italian in thought and customs.
The Trentino bishopric was abolished in 1805 by Napoleon and the
region then became part of the kingdom of Bavaria. From 1809 to
1814, however, the Trentino, together with a part of the upper
Adige valley, was converted into an Italian administrative district
under the name of Dipartimento dell’ Alto Adige. In 1815 the region
was assigned to Austria together with Lombardo-Venetia and the
Tyrol.
Throughout the eventful history of the present millennium the
Tyrol has been the cockpit of Germano-Romance clashes. A lively
competition between German and Italian traders has always been
maintained within its borders. During the era of religious
upheavals, the Germans rallied to the cause of the Reformation
while the Italian element remained faithful to the authority of
the Vatican. Contact with the Teutonic element appears to have
failed, however, to eradicate or modify the Italian character of
the region’s life and institutions.[59]
The splendor of the Italian Renaissance stamped its mark on all
the Tyrolese districts drained by waters flowing southwards.
Castles and churches of the Trentino show the influence of Italian
architectural styles. Their interior ornamentation derived its
inspiration from the same source. In painting, the Bressanone
and Bolzano schools of the fifteenth century likewise maintained
Italian traditions in the valley of the upper Adige. Statues and
bas-reliefs in the towns of this region also bear witness to the
Italian taste of its inhabitants.
All these artistic leanings towards Italy are best observed in
Trent itself. The celebrated castle of the “Buen Consiglio” is a
blend of Venetian and Veronese styles. Bramante was the architect
of the Tabarelli palace, and a disciple of Tullio Lombardo
built that of Moar. The Duomo di Trento owes its beauty mainly
to the artistic conceptions of the Comacini masters. Some of
its frescoes dating from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries
are the handicraft of Veronese artists. This Italian influence
has been maintained to the present day. A tourist reaching the
city will behold Dante’s symbolic statue--the work of Zocchi, a
Florentine--immediately upon leaving the main station.[60] Roaming
through the city his attention will be attracted by innumerable
reminders of modern Italian work of the type seen in the façade
of St. Peter’s church. These are concrete manifestations of an
intellectual and artistic outflow from the Italian border northward.
Reports on the German propaganda carried on in the Trentino
have been made on several occasions to their governments by
Italian consular agents.[61] This movement is prosecuted with
untiring perseverance by the members of the Tiroler Volksbund,
an organization founded in 1905, for the purpose of diffusing
German language and customs in southern Tyrol. Schools and other
institutions managed by German staffs provide Teutonic education
free of cost to the natives. Periodicals and pamphlets are
distributed profusely to this end. Lectures setting forth the
Germanic origins of Trentino settlements are delivered. A more
aggressive method of action consists in sending out “Wanderlehrers”
or traveling teachers to give elementary courses from village to
village.
Descendants of Rheto-Romans settled in eastern Tyrol speak a
language of Latin stock which, in common with other mountain
languages, failed to blossom into literature mainly on account of
the secluded life of its highland users. The dialect is closely
allied to the Friulian. The two form together the western border of
the Slovene linguistic area and attain Triest on the south. Lack of
written masterpieces tends to weaken the life of the language and
it is being replaced by Italian. Concurrently with the growth of
the region’s foreign intercourse in modern times invasion of German
words can also be detected, though not to the extent of impairing
the fundamental Romanic strain.
The Adriatic provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire are peopled
mainly by Italians and Slavs. German and Hungarian elements in
the population consist of civil and military officials and of
merchants. From an ethnological and linguistic standpoint the
maritime district is Italian or Slav according to its elevation.
The Romanic stock forms the piedmont populations while the dwellers
of the hilly coast chains are of Slavic issue and speech. The
western coast of the Istrian peninsula, however, is an area of
Italian speech, which is generally confined to urban centers.
The following figures for the population of the Dalmatian islands
show the numerical inferiority of the Italians:[62]
Population Inhabitants
according to speaking Inhabitants
census of Serbo-Croatian speaking
LOCALITY 1910 dialects Italian
Number Per cent Number Per cent
Lissa,
St. Andrea
and Busi 10,041 9,939 98.98 92 0.92
Lesina,
Spalmadori
and Torcola 16,861 16,340 96.91 494 2.92
Curzola, Cazza,
Lagosta and
adjoining reefs 21,628 21,186 97.95 436 2.01
Stagno district,
including
Meleda island[63] 9,424 9,393 99.67 9 0.1
Zara, Spalato, Sebenico, Ragusa and Cattaro,[64] however, contain
flourishing colonies of Italians whose commercial enterprise has
helped their mother tongue to prevail if not predominate in their
region. Outside of these cities, the Italian element, wherever
present, is restricted to littoral strips. The Slavs invariably
occupy the plateau and the slopes extending seaward.
The Istrian region of predominant Italian speech consists of the
western peninsular lowland extending south of Triest[65] to the
tip of the promontory beyond Pola.[66] Istrians to whom Italian is
vernacular number 147,420 individuals according to the census of
1910. The Slavs of the Karst and terraced sections constituting the
rest of the population belong to the Roman faith, but have no other
common bond with their Italian countrymen.
Istria is a triangle about 60 miles long with a maximum breadth of
46 miles. It rises from the southwestern coast gradually up to the
Dinaric Alps. Owing to its undulating surface and the absence of
coastal plains, it may be regarded as a part of this range, jutting
out into the sea. On the whole, Istria may be called a Karst
land, for three-fourths of its surface consists of Karst-forming
limestone and only one-fourth of sandstone and marl. With few
exceptions its natural waterways are confined to the sandstone
districts. The peninsula is also a transition region between the
mild Mediterranean and central European climates. The summers
are dry and in autumn heavy rains fall. Almost all the land is
productive and 67 per cent of its population live by agriculture
and forestry.
Settlement by Slavs of the hills dominating the Adriatic appears
to have taken place continuously from the ninth to the seventeenth
century. Feudatory chiefs of medieval ages first resorted to this
method of developing the uncultivated slopes and highlands of the
eastern coast. The Venetian republic and the Austrian government
adopted similar measures of colonization. Slavic tribes, hard
pressed by their kinsmen or by Tatars from the east, thus found
refuge in the mountainous Dalmatian coastland under the ægis of
western nations. A traveler taking ship today and sailing from
harbor to harbor along the shores of the eastern Adriatic would
readily notice the numerical superiority of these descendants of
Slavs. They constitute the mass of toilers in every walk of life,
and sooner or later probably will erect a political fabric on the
foundations of their linguistic preponderance.
Slavic dialects are found in the Friulian sections of eastern Italy
as well as in the Abruzzi and Molise regions. The Slavic population
of Friuli was estimated in 1851 at 26,676. The census of 1901
records the existence of 5,734 Slavic-speaking families scattered
in 16 communi and consisting of about 36,000 individuals.
The Slavs of Italy may be divided into four dialectical groups as
follows:[67]
Natisone group composed of 17,291 individuals
Torre “ “ “ 12,986 “
Judrio “ “ “ 1,230 “
Resia “ “ “ 4,671 “
The Molise group is the remnant of a once extensive Slav colony
which had reached the province of Chieti. Round-headedness,
accompanied by high stature and blondness, among inhabitants of the
communes of Vasto, Cupello, Monteoderisio, Abbateggio, Lanciano,
San Giovanni Teatino, Cascanditella and San Vito Chietino betrays
Slavic ancestry. And yet Slavic dialects are hardly heard any
longer in these country districts. The communes of Acquaviva
Collecroce and San Felice Slavo alone boast of some 4,500
inhabitants who speak Slovene.
The Karst or Carso formation on which Slovene life developed is
the western section of a long calcareous plateau which extends from
the Julian Alps, along the border of the ancient Friulian gulf
and attains Balkan ranges. It separates the valley of the Save
from the Adriatic. A characteristic aspect is noticeable over all
its extent in the thickness of its limestone beds and their deep
fissures. Surface water cannot collect and flow for any distance
without disappearing into a fissure. The erosion forms of the
plateau are of the Karst type and differ radically from those of
the average humid climate. Chambers of marvelous dimensions are
formed; funnel-shaped sink-holes dot the surface; and the rivers
run underground.
The Slovenes settled on the calcareous plateau of Carniola cluster
around Laibach and attain the area of German speech on the north,
along the Drave between Marburg and Klagenfurth. Eastward they
march with Hungarians and the Serbo-Croat group of southern Slavs.
Their southern linguistic boundary also coincides with that of the
latter. Around Gottschee, however, a zone of German intervenes
between Slovene and Croatian dialects. Practically the entire
eastern coast of the Gulf of Triest lies in the area of Slovene
speech. The group thereby acquires the advantage of direct access
to the sea, a fact of no mean importance among the causes that
contributed to its survival to the present day in spite of its
being surrounded by Germans, Hungarians, Croats and Italians.
The Slovenes may be considered as laggards among the Slavic
immigrants who followed Avar invasions. They would probably have
occupied the fertile plains of Hungary had they not been driven to
their elevated home by the pressure of Magyar and Turkish advances.
Confinement in the upland prevented their fusion with any of the
successive occupants of the eastern plains below their mountain
habitations. Racial distinctiveness, characterized by language no
less than by a highly developed attachment to tradition, resulted
from this seclusion.
Starting from the Adriatic Sea in the vicinity of Triest the
boundary of Slovene territory, according to Niederle, extends
to Duino, Montefalcone, Gradisca and Cormons. From the last
locality it heads for Italian territory, within which it cuts off
the districts east of Tarcento and Resia from the area of Italian
speech. At Kanin the line is once more on Austrian soil. It now
proceeds to Pontafel, Saint-Hermagoras, Dobrac and Villach, the
latter city being mainly German. Beyond the Drave, the linguistic
frontier passes close to Woerther Lake and thence by Kostenberg
and Moosburg. From this town the divide is prolonged to Gurk and
extends towards Diex, Greutschach, Griffen and St. Pancrace. It
next attains Arnfels. Fifty years ago, according to the same
authority, the environs of this village were inhabited by Slovene
populations. The district has since then been reclaimed by German
speech. The same is true of the right bank of the Mur in the
vicinity of Radkersburg.
At Radgona, the Slovene boundary crosses the Mur once more and
extends northward into Hungary as far as the German village of St.
Gotthard, which it leaves to the north. Thence it turns southward
at the Raab and heads for the Mur, which it crosses at Gornia
Bistrica. The line then runs close to the provincial boundaries
of Croatia and Carniola before attaining the sea again in Istria.
The Slovene area thus delimited comprises the duchy of Carniola,
excepting the Gottschee enclave, northern Istria, the Udine region,
southeastern Karinthia, southern Styria and part of the Hungarian
“comitats” of Vas and Zala. This Slovene land is now but a dwindled
remnant of its former extension. At one time the Slovenes extended
as far west as the Pusterthal in Tyrol, while their settlements
even reached the Danube (at Linz and Vienna).
Contact between languages on the Italo-Austrian frontier has
influenced the political relations between the two countries.
The whole foreign policy of the Austrian Empire, in fact, may be
said to have been stimulated mainly by the necessity of keeping
its mixed population in subjection. The central position of
Austria-Hungary had made it the meeting-place of every important
race in Europe. The mountain-girt monarchy is a seething reservoir
of nationalities. Germans from the west flow into it. Czechs and
Slovaks press in from the northwest, Poles and Ruthenians from the
north and northeast. A Rumanian drive proceeds from the southeast.
Croats, Serbians and Slovenes are steadily pushing northward.
Italians, advancing from the southwest, complete the ring. Facing
these racial swarms a central mass of Hungarians are striving to
expand against them.
[Illustration:
FIG. 31--The area of Slovene speech in Austria and adjacent parts
of Italy.]
For more than twelve centuries Austria’s geographical position
has made her the protectress of Europe from successive onslaughts
of barbarian hordes pressing from the east. The German-speaking
nucleus of the present Dual Monarchy was founded, at the end of
the eighth century, by Charles the Great as a bulwark against the
Avars. A little later the rôle of stemming the tide of Hungarian
attacks also devolved upon it. Fighting incessantly and on the
whole successfully against eastern invaders, the Austrians
gradually extended their territory towards the Orient. The valley
of the Danube provided them with settling-land and passage-way.
War and marriages brought their share of added territory to the
Hapsburg reigning family. By 1526 Moravia, Bohemia, Silesia and
Hungary had been added to the Empire. Transylvania was conquered in
the seventeenth century, Galicia and Bukovina in the eighteenth.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Austria was the leader
among German-speaking states. Prussian shot and shell ousted her
from this position at the battle of Sadowa in 1866. But the task
undertaken over a thousand years ago is still being performed.
Austrians today are engaged in another effort to check the westward
Slavic flow.
The country is ill-prepared to meet its hereditary foe. The
sovereign existence of Austria-Hungary to this day can be regarded
only as an exceedingly marvelous feat of political jugglery. Its
weakness lies in the presence of strong contingents of dissimilar
races in its population. Struggle between the component masses
is as unending as it is passionate. To the lack of linguistic
or racial affinity must be added the want of a liberal form of
government in the strictly representative or federative sense.
Representative government, in the absence of everything else, might
have provided the required bond of political cohesion. Of the
total population of Austria only 11,000,000, or 24 per cent, are
Germans. These Teutons pay allegiance to the Hapsburg emperor along
with 9,000,000 Hungarians, 3,000,000 Rumanians and about 1,000,000
Italians. The Slavic race, however, outnumbers every other element
in the Empire. Its 21,000,000 members constitute 44 per cent of the
subjects of Charles I.
[Illustration:
_The American Geographical Society of New York_
_Frontiers of Language and Nationality in Europe, 1917, Pl. III_
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY AND PARTS OF SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE SHOWING LANGUAGES]
In one sense Austria’s mission of protecting Europe ended as
soon as the Ottoman Empire ceased to be a source of danger. To
consolidate Danubian nationalities in a single group capable of
withstanding the Turkish advance had constituted Austria’s most
glorious part in modern history. With the elimination of the
Turkish danger, the necessity of political union among the peoples
occupying the valley of the Danube was removed. The chief reason
for the maintenance of an Austrian state thereby ceases to exist.
Events of our own times reveal the natural working out of these
international problems. As long as Mohammedanism threatened to
absorb Christianity in southeastern Europe, the various peoples
of the Austrian Empire stood shoulder to shoulder against a
common foe. The sense of security now induces them to turn their
thoughts on themselves and effectively hasten the growth of
national consciousness based on ideals and aspirations which can be
expressed in a common language.
The passing of Austria’s usefulness as a nation has been marked by
the country’s growing vassalage to the leading Teutonic power. At
Berlin, the center of Imperial Germany, the aim of every leader
is to further the easterly expansion of the Empire. Austria,
commanding the natural route to the southeast, figures as a
precious asset in these imperial estimates. But success to German
ambition spells defeat to the dreams of political independence
cherished in the minds of the peoples of Austria-Hungary. A
conflict of vital importance to each contestant is raging. The
struggle is likely to be maintained wherever more than a single
language continues to be spoken.
The mastery of the Adriatic, claimed by Italy at present, has been
contested in the past twenty-five centuries by every people which
succeeded in gaining a foothold on its shores. Illyrians, Greeks,
Romans, Byzantines, Venetians and Turks each in their day acquired
maritime supremacy in the Mediterranean, and naturally aspired to
control this waterway. The prize was worth fighting for. It was
part of the lane of traffic between the rich valley of the Po,
the lands beyond the Alps and eastern countries. In the present
century eastern trade generally runs in different channels. A
sufficient tonnage, however, finds its way to the great harbors
of the Adriatic to excite Italian ambitions. Moreover Italian
manufacturers are looking forward to the establishment of crosswise
trade relations with the Balkan peninsula. These are economic
considerations which impart definite aim to the policy of Italian
statesmen.
The most satisfactory picture of Italian desire to annex Dalmatia
appears on maps of the Adriatic, which show the contrast between
the opposite coasts. On the Italian side, the coastline runs
with monotonous uniformity. It is devoid of the headlands, gulfs
or islands which impart economic, strategic and scenic value to
Dalmatia. Barring short stretches in Puglia the entire Italian
coast is shallow and sandy. Its well-known ports hardly deserve
the name. Mariners are well aware of the obstacles to navigation
along the whole western Adriatic shore. At the head of this sea,
especially, the situation for Italian shipping is most unfavorable,
owing to the large number of rivers which discharge material
collected from practically the entire eastern watershed of the
Alps and that of the northern Apennines. From west to east some
among the most important of these rivers are the Po, Adige, Piave
and Isonzo. This piling of material, added to the process of land
emergence going on at the head of the Adriatic, impairs the value
of the Gulf of Venice to modern navigation.
The Dalmatian coast, however, with its numerous bays and gulfs
setting far into the land and broken by many headlands, is fringed
by a garland of outlying islands. These natural features of the
region provide the advantages denied to Italy. Almost every mile of
shore in Dalmatia contains a commodious harbor for merchantmen or a
well-sheltered base for war vessels. Most of the rivers originating
in the mountain chains overlooking blue water flow eastward toward
the Danube. Very little silt and sediment therefore finds its way
to the Dalmatian coast.
Linguistically, the eastern shore of the Adriatic is Serbian or
Albanian. But the history of this coastal land is Italian in spite
of the showing of census returns as to the decided numerical
inferiority of Italians within its limits. Rome had reached
Dalmatia and the Near East by way of the Adriatic. A whole chain
of imposing ruins extending to the wild Albanian shores bear the
unmistakable impress of Roman splendor. In the partition of the
Roman Empire in 295 A.D. Dalmatia was assigned to the western
and not to the eastern half. The period of its subjection to
Venetian rule is one of the most brilliant in its history. All the
civilization it received came from the west.
The fact is that the Italian element has always been predominant.
After 1866 its influence was viewed with disfavor by the Austrian
government. Serbians and Croats were encouraged to settle in the
Italian communities of the coast and officials of the Dual Monarchy
were instructed to assist the Slavs in every possible manner with a
view to counterbalancing Italian primacy in the province. In recent
years the task of the Austrian government became doubly difficult,
for its representatives could not avoid playing alternately into
the hands of Serbians and Italians.
Dalmatia has always greeted Italian thought as the heritage of
Rome and Venice. Its history, its most notable monuments and its
whole culture are products of either Roman or Venetian influence.
The maritime cities in particular still remain strongholds of
Italian thought. Almost every one boasts of a native son who has
distinguished himself in the cause of Italy.
[Illustration:
FIG. 32--Map of the Dalmatian coast of the Adriatic. Scale,
1:4,000,000. (Ancient names in hair-line type.)]
Zara, which Italian authors delight in qualifying as
“italianissima,” is the native city of the Italian patriot Arturo
Colantti. The great Dalmatian poet Niccoló Tomasseo, whose monument
was erected in Sebenico in 1896, was a son of this city and,
although an intensely patriotic Slav, nevertheless thus expressed
himself in Italian:
Nè più tra’l monte e il mar, povero lembo
Di terra e poche ignude isole sparte,
O Patria mia, sarai; ma la rinata
Serbia guerriera mano e mite spirto,
showing thereby the extent of the hold of Italian culture over the
land. Again, Spalato is the birthplace of Antonio Bajamonti, one of
the greatest exponents of Italy’s claims over Dalmatia.
According to the Austrian census of 1910 the population of the
province consisted of 645,666 inhabitants. Of these it is estimated
that 60,000 are Italians, who constitute the progressive and
educated element of the population. The Slav inhabitants number
approximately 480,000, but only about 30,000 among them have a
speaking knowledge of Italian. The mass of this Slavic element is
uneducated.
The Illyrians were early inhabitants of the eastern Adriatic
coast whom the Romans had conquered in order to check piracy
in the Adriatic. After being tamed these barbarians formed the
substratum of the population of Adriatic cities. Throughout the
coast their language was displaced during the Middle Ages by the
Venetian of Italian traders. In the Albanian mountains, however,
the old Illyrian tongue strongly impregnated with Latin words still
survives. Roman influence could not be exerted on this rugged land
as strongly as on the coast.
Rome’s ancient domination of the Illyrian coast and Wallachian
plains led to highly interesting consequences. A genuine Romance
language was once spoken by the mountain population of shepherds
which extended across the entire Balkan peninsula from the
Dalmatian coast, through the Bosnian and Serbian highlands,
into the easternmost ranges of the Carpathians. The similarity
observable in Balkan and Carpathian mountain dialects thus finds
its source in the original easterly expansion of Rome. The Banat
territory, in which the proportion of Rumanian inhabitants is high,
is the bridge land which connects the Rumanian form of Latin used
on the broad Transylvanian shelf to the Albanian prevailing in the
broken-up highlands of Albania. Romance speech therefore found a
ready soil in the Balkan uplifts. It may even be detected in the
mountainous sections of Thrace, a province which also fell under
Roman rule during the transition period from pagan to Christian
days.
The arrival of Slavs in the seventh century forced the Romans to
take refuge behind city walls, so that although the vast non-urban
part of the province became Slavic in population, the cities
remained Latin and formed themselves into a number of independent
republics. These city states passed under Venetian protection in
the ninth and tenth centuries to safeguard themselves against
the piratical raids of Slavs who had succumbed to the nefarious
influence exerted by the dissected coast with its numerous fiords
and deep-water harbors.
The Venetian protectorate soon became converted into direct
sovereignty. But the yoke of the Doges lay light on the land,
the administration of cities being left entirely in the hands
of the citizens. Venetian authority was most strongly felt in
Dalmatia after the assumption of the title of Dux Histriae et
Dalmatiae by Doge Pietro Orseolo II. All the efforts of Hungarians
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and of Turks in the
seventeenth, to insinuate themselves into Dalmatian affairs
were futile. The imposing barrier of the Dinaric Alps forbade
intercourse between Dalmatia and the east. Life and progress flowed
into the province from the west over Adriatic waters.
Dalmatia changed hands frequently during the Napoleonic period.
Perhaps it is on this account that the Dalmatian, when questioned
regarding his nationality, answers by stating that he has two
languages. Of these he calls one “lingua del cuore,” and the other
“lingua del pane.” His native province was awarded to Austria by
the treaty of Campoformio in 1797 and subsequently annexed to
Napoleon’s Empire by the treaty of Presburg in 1805. It reverted to
Austrian rule in 1814. Successive masters, however, failed to root
out Italian in the region. The language was recognized as official
until 1860. The formation of a united Italian state marked the
beginning of a repressive policy directed against Italians by the
Austrian government. The effort of the Hapsburg administration was
entirely directed towards the development of the Adriatic Slavs
in order to counterbalance Italian influence. A great revival of
Croatian and Serbian national feeling resulted from this policy.
The award of the entire eastern Adriatic coast to Italy would not
only trespass on lands of alien speech, but would seriously hamper
future economic development of Croatians and Serbians by preventing
these peoples from attaining the sea. These points are admitted by
most Italian irredentists. They therefore limit their claims to
the Istrian peninsula and the coast region of Dalmatia comprised
between the Velebiti range and the Narenta river. Italy’s position
in the Adriatic would be improved by the recognition of the rights
of her Slav neighbors. The goodwill of a united and liberated
Jugoslavia, which would be bound to Italy by ties of interest and
sentiment, would thus be acquired.
The Croatian coastland, in the section which extends along the
waterway of the same name from the gulf of Fiume to the mouth of
the Zermagna river, is known as the Morlacca. The bay of Buccari is
strategically necessary for the protection of Fiume, and Italians
would probably make a strong claim for its possession in case the
larger seaport came into their possession. The Serbian coastland
really begins south of the Narenta river and centers around Ragusa.
This is the only city of any importance on the Adriatic coast in
which evidences of Serbian culture are discernible.
The old Slavic settlers were probably traders who plied between
the coasts of Dalmatia and Abruzzi during the Middle Ages. In
the kingdom of Naples Slav colonists are known as early as the
eleventh century, during the reign of Emperor Otto I. The bulk of
Slavic immigration into Italy dates, however, from the beginning
of the fifteenth century when possession of the coast provinces
was disputed by the Aragonians and Angevins. Both claimants
induced Slavs to colonize the contested regions on condition that
they would recognize the authority of those who provided them
with land. At a later period the advance of Turkish hordes in the
Balkans drove a large number of Slavic families westward.
[Illustration:
FIG. 33--The Slavic colonies of the Molise group in eastern Italy
are shown by black dots.]
The Turkish conquest of Greece also forced many Greek families to
seek safety on the Italian mainland. As a result, two communities
of Greek speech are found on Italian territory at Lecce in the
province of Puglia and at Bora in Calabria. The vernacular of
both these regions contains a strong proportion of Italian words
without, however, losing its affinity with the original mother
tongue. The Lecce community consists of 4,973 families scattered in
nine communi. The southern group is represented by 2,389 families
settled in four communi of the Bora district, in Reggio di Calabria
and in Palizzi. Altogether Greek is spoken as a vernacular by
30,700 inhabitants of Italy.
Still another reminder of the Turkish conquests of the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries is afforded by the presence of an Albanian
element living along the eastern coast of Italy. This group
consists of between 80,000 and 90,000 Albanians speaking their
own language. The purity of Albanian speech and custom has been
preserved by them on the alien soil skirting western Adriatic
waters.[68]
This total shows a marked decrease from the figure of 96,000
reported in the census of 1901. Emigration accounts mainly for
this loss. At the same time, a tendency among Albanians to forsake
their vernacular for Italian is discernible as intercourse with the
dominant element increases.
All these nuclei of foreign languages cannot impair the unity of
Italian nationality because the racial distinctions on which they
are based have been largely obliterated. The final supremacy of
Italian language is already in sight. From the valleys of Piedmont
to the eastern coastlands which face Albania, the alien tongues are
giving way before the national vernacular, perhaps just because no
pressure or effort to hasten their disappearance is being exerted
by the government.
TABLE I
INHABITANTS OF ITALY SPEAKING NON-ITALIAN VERNACULARS[69]
Number of Families[70]
(Average of four persons
LANGUAGE Localities to the family)
French Saluzzo (Cuneo) 238
Aosta (Torino) 15,692
Pignerol 1,937
Suse 1,779
German Aosta (Torino) 430
Domodossola (Novara) 250
Varallo 412
Asiago (Vicenza) 501
Tregnago (Verona) 30
Pieve di Cadore (Belluno) 299
Tolmezzo (Udine) 280
Slovene Cividale del Friuli (Udine) 3,769
Gemona 120
Tolmezzo 990
Tarcento 1,371
Serbian Larino (Campobasso) 1,069
Albanian Larino (Campobasso) 2,431
Penne (Teramo) 66
Ariano di Puglia (Avel.) 763
San Severo (Foggia) 832
Taranto (Lecce) 757
Lagonegro (Potenza) 2,319
Catanzaro 701
Cotrone (Catanzaro) 789
Nicastro 434
Castrovillari (Cosenza) 3,330
Cosenza 1,441
Paola (Cosenza) 408
Rossano 1,702
Corleone (Palermo) 385
Palermo 2,733
Greek Lecce 4,935
Gerace (Reggio di Calab.) 129
Reggio di Calabria 1,841
Catalonian Alghero (Sassari) 2,552
------
Total 57,715
The proportion of inhabitants of Italian (including Ladin)
speech in the Adriatic lands claimed by Italy is given as follows
according to the Austrian Census of 1910:[71]
TABLE II
PROPORTION OF INHABITANTS OF ITALIAN (INCLUDING LADIN) SPEECH IN
THE ADRIATIC LANDS CLAIMED BY ITALY ACCORDING TO THE AUSTRIAN
CENSUS OF 1910:
Number of Italian
COAST Total number of (and Ladin) speaking
PROVINCES Austrian subjects Austrian subjects
Triest (city) 190,913 118,959
Görz “ 29,291 14,812
Görz (district) 73,275 2,765
Gradisca “ 31,321 26,263
Monfalcone “ 47,858 45,907
Sesana “ 30,078 343
Tolmein “ 38,070 29
Rovigno (city) 11,308 10,859
Capodistria (district) 87,652 38,006
Lussin “ 20,450 9,884
Mitterburg “ 48,243 4,032
Parenzo “ 60,368 41,276
Pola “ 85,943 40,863
Veglia “ 21,136 1,544
Volosca “ 51,363 953
Number of Italian
Total number of (and Ladin) speaking
DALMATIA Austrian subjects Austrian subjects
Benkovac (district) 44,054 84
Cattaro “ 36,014 538
Curzola “ 29,695 444
Imotski “ 42,086 46
Knin “ 54,936 186
Lesina “ 26,902 586
Makarska “ 27,649 117
Metkovic “ 15,475 32
Ragusa “ 38,632 526
San Pietro “
(Brazza) 22,865 265
Sebenico “ 57,658 968
Sinj “ 57,021 111
Spalato “ 98,509 2,357
Zara “ 83,359 11,768
FOOTNOTES:
[48] Colonie straniere nel territorio politico. _La Geogr._, Vol.
3, 1915, May-June, pp. 222-224.
[49] L. Fune: Les parlers populaires du Département des
Alpes-Maritimes, _Bull. Géogr. Hist. et Descrip._, 1897, No. 2, pp.
298-303.
[50] Op. cit.
[51] Blocher u. Garraux: Die deut. Ortsnamenformen in Westschweiz,
_Deutsche Erde_, Vol. 5, 1906, p. 170.
[52] The Italian population of Austria-Hungary is estimated
at 768,422 according to the Austrian census of 1910. Italian
computations set the total number of Italians living in Austria at
837,000, distributed as follows (_Boll. Real. Soc. Geogr._, Aug. 1,
1915, p. 897):
Upper Adige Valley 25,000
Trentino 373,000
Triest 142,000
Austrian Friuliland 93,000
Istria 148,000
Dalmatia 30,000
Fiume 26,000
-------
Total 837,000
[53] G. de Lucchi: Trentino e Tirolo, _Boll. 16, Minist. Aff.
Esteri_, Rome, 1915, p. 70.
[54] A. Dauzat: Les vallées italiennes de langue allemande, _A
Travers le Monde_, 1913, Sept. 6, pp. 285-286.
[55] O. Noel, Histoire du commerce du monde, Paris, 1891, Vol. 2,
pp. 148-168.
[56] B. Auerbach: Races et nationalités en Autriche-Hongrie, Paris,
1898, p. 86.
[57] Scheller, Deutsche u. Romanen in Südtirol u. Venetien, _Pet.
Mitt._, 1877, pp. 365-385.
[58] A. Galanti: I diritti storici ed etnici dell’ Italia sulle
terre irredente, _La Geogr._, Vol. 3, Nos. 3-4, March-April 1915,
p. 88.
[59] A. Galanti: I Tedeschi sul versante meridionale delle Alpi,
Typ. Acad. Lincei, Rome, 1885, p. 185.
[60] According to press reports in 1915 Dante’s monument was
destroyed by the Austrians.
[61] G. de Lucchi: Trentino e Tirolo, _Boll. 16, Minist. Aff.
Esteri_, Rome, 1915.
[62] O. Keude: Italien und die Dalmatienische Inselfrage, _Kartogr.
Zeits._, Vienna, Nov. 15, 1915.
[63] Austrian census returns have been the object of frequent
criticism in non-Germanic countries. The political interests of
the Austrian government may have led its officials to minimize the
importance of the language spoken by dissenting peoples. A tendency
to overestimate the spread of German has always been suspected.
A common practice consists in forming artificial administrative
districts so as to create German numerical superiority within their
borders. As a rule an increase of 10 per cent in the number of
Slavs, Rumanians and Italians can be safely added to the figures
set forth in government statistics. Conversely the same percentage
may be subtracted with safety from the totals for Germans and
Hungarians.
[64] Italian predominates in both Zara and Spalato, the latter city
being second in commercial importance along the Dalmatian coast.
It is estimated that, in all, more than 18,000 Italians inhabit
Dalmatia.
[65] Triest and its environs are peopled mainly by Italians. The
suburbs are inhabited by crowded Slavic settlements. The census of
1910 shows 118,960 Italians, 57,920 Slovenes, 11,860 Germans and
2,400 Croats. For Istria returns of the same date give: Italians
147,417, Serbo-Croatians 168,184, Slovenes 55,134.
[66] M. Wutte: Das Deutschtum in Österreichischen Küstenland,
_Deutsche Erde_, Vol. 8, 1909, p. 202.
[67] G. Canastrelli: Il numero degli Slavi in Friuli, _Riv. Geogr.
It._, Vol. 21, Nos. 1-2, Jan-Feb. 1914, pp. 96-102.
[68] O. Marinelli: Il numero degli Albanesi in Italia, _Riv. Geogr.
It._, Vol. 20, pp. 364-367; A. Similari: Gli Albanesi in Italia,
loro costumi e poesie popolari, Naples, 1891.
[69] _Annuario Statistico Italiano_, 2d series, Vol. 4, 1914, Roma,
1915, p. 28.
[70] The Italian practice of computing by families is a result in
this instance of the official standpoint which recognizes foreign
languages as prevailing only in home life.
[71] G. Lukas: Die Latinität der adriatischen Küste
Österreich-Ungarns--Geographische Vorlesungen, _Pet. Mitt_., Vol.
6, Nov. 1915, pp. 413-416.