In our day about seventy different languages are spoken in Russia. In this fact is found a serious drawback to effective national unity. Fortunately the spread of the dialects belonging to the Slavic group of languages is steady. The thorough Slavicization of the peoples of the basin of the Volga is not yet ended, but Great Russian is gradually uprooting the native Uralo-Altaic tongues. It is also imposing itself upon Asiatic languages in Caucasia and Transcaspian territory. Wherever there has been a thorough blending of dialects into Russian, nationality has sprung into existence. Elsewhere unity is in process of formation. The problem before the governing class consists in hastening the assimilation of the different elements to the original Slavic nucleus. Not until this consummation has taken place will the country have developed its full strength. And the measure of progress will be indicated by the growing replacement of the numerous dialects by a single national language.
Looking back over the stormy centuries during which French, German and Russian nationalities were elaborated, we behold the formative influence of language everywhere. Aspirations which precede the period of free and unfettered national life give way to achievement when national hopes are crowned. This we shall find in greater detail in the succeeding chapters.
FIG. 10--View of Nizhni-Novgorod and the Fair across the Oka River.]
[1] E. C. Semple: The Barrier Boundary of the Mediterranean Basin and Its Northern Breaches as Factors in History, _Ann. Assoc. Amer. Geogr._, Vol. 5, 1915, pp. 27-59.
[2] The Neolithic lasted longer north of the Alps.
[3] The dialects or patois spoken today in France all fall under one of these two languages. They can be classified as follows:
_Patois_ _Spoken in the Departments of_ Languedocian Gard, Hérault, Pyrénées-Orientales, Aude, Ariège, Haute-Garonne, Lot-et-Garonne, Tarn, Aveyron, Lot, Tarn-et-Garonne. Provençal Drôme, Vaucluse, Bouches-du-Rhône, Hautes- and Basses-Alpes, Var. Dauphinois Isère. Lyonnais Rhône, Ain, Saône-et-Loire. Auvergnat Allier, Loire, Haute-Loire, Ardèche, Lozère, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal. Limousin Corrèze, Haute-Vienne, Creuse, Indre, Cher, Vienne, Dordogne, Charente, Charente-Inférieure, Indre-et-Loire. Gascon Gironde, Landes, Hautes-Pyrénées, Basses-Pyrénées, Gers.