The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1914-08-07

Before flags and religions men knew
friend from foe by the language test
More than half OF the wars OF Eu'
rope have been fought by parties mu'
tually unintelligible.
Broadly speaking. all European Ian.
guages belong to the Aryan group,
The most important exception is the
Magyar, a dialect Of the same Ian
guage spoken BY Turks and Firms
How Divided by Language.
OF the Aryan tongue there are three
great general divisions In Europe-Ro-
nance, T~eutonic. Slavic. We are in
terested only In the latter two. And
of the Teutonic German Is spoken by
80,000.0 900, Of which 10000 900 are in
Austria and 1000, 900 In Hungary.
There are 140,0 00, 900 Slavs in Eu-
rope.
From this It appears that the pres
ent political boundaries are not coter-
minous with linguistic groups.
Right here In this fact we have the
seed Of present and future trouble
and a clue to the cause of most of
the wars In eastern Europe through
1000 years,
slav Situation In Europe.
To get before us the full signif-
canoe OF the fact suggested by the
map let us consider the linguistic com.
plexion OF these countries.
Russia is a yeritable ~hodgepodge OF
tongues, but Of her Slav population
alone we have at least two distinct
elements today bitterly opposed to
each other, with the possibility, II not
the probability, of q third, which will
seek recognition.
As against Russians proper. there
are over 10000, 900 Poles, and Of the
remaining Slavs there are 100000
Ruthenians. or Little Of White Rus
slams, as they are sometimes called.
OF the general Polish situation l shall
speak later.
In Germany there are v e. 1900. 900
Slavs. chiefly Polish.
OF Austria's 10000 900 population
only about a third is German, the re-
mainder being Slav, Of which there are
over 100000 Czechs or Bohemians.
5.000.0 900 Poles, 100000 Ruthenians,
and a million and a quarter Slovenes.
Many Tongues In Hungary.
Hungary Is even more diversified
In tongue. The Magyar element
10000, 000) is equaled by the non
Magyar made up roughly Of 1000. 900
1000, 900 Slovaks, one-half
a million R%uthenians, 5000, 900 Serbo-
Creates. all Of the S~lavonic tongue,
and about 100000 R~oumanians who
do not speak Slav at all. but a Ro-
nance language.
We need not here consider the lin
affinities Of the Balkan states.
1t 10 enough to say that Servia Is pure
ly Servian and Siav, Bulgaria ID Bull
gar and slav tthough the basis Of
blood Of Buigars ia. like that Of the
Magyar. Asiatic).
The population OF Montenegro, about
half q million, are slavs Of the Ser
Wan branch. Roumanians are Of
mixed origin. but the Roumanian
is spoken by l2.0O0. 900 people,
If which five and a half million are
Roumania (s2 per cent Of Its total
%population), the remaining millions
ire found In the Duel Monarchy, Ser
via, Bulgaria and Russia.
People Develop Languages.
: Millions Of people today speak Pol
sh whose ancestors q few generations
ago weren't conscious of the fact that
hey spoke any language at all. To
lay there 10 a SlavoDic literature;
30 years ago no one even thought Of
.uch q thing. The millions Of Bohe-
mans had become almost entirely Ger
mans. and never before have they
,een 20 thoroughly Slavonic as today.
Bohemian hostility to Germany has
been called a passion. II was not 80
very long ago that the language Of
he Hungarian parliament was Latin;
Magyar was held fit only for peasant
ak. Today the bitterness between
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