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. [Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood_ FIG. 10--View of Nizhni-Novgorod and the Fair across the Oka River.] [Illustration: _Copyright by Underwood & Underwood_ FIG. 11--Plain of the Dnieper at Kiev.] FOOTNOTES: [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: LANGUE D’OC _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. LANGUE D’OÏL Norman Normandie, Bretagne, Perche, Maine, Anjou, Poitou, Saintonge. Picard Picardie, Ile-de-France, Artois, Flandre, Hainaut, Lower Maine, Thiérache, Rethelois. Burgundian Nivernais, Berry, Orléanais, Lower Bourbonnais, part of Ile-de-France, Champagne, Lorraine, Franche-Comté. [4] The terminal _s_, a distinctly Latin form, is seen to persist in this early stage of the language. [5] Niederdeutsch is derived directly from Old Saxon, the language which enters into the composition of the Anglo-Saxon current in England at the time of the Norman Conquest. [6] Cf. Sheets 12a, Europe, Flusz-Gebirgskarte, and 12c, Europa, Sprachen- und Völkerkarte, both 1:12,000,000, in Debes: Handatlas. CHAPTER II THE BOUNDARIES OF FRENCH AND GERMANIC LANGUAGES IN BELGIUM AND LUXEMBURG