[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. CHAPTER V SCANDINAVIAN AND BALTIC LANGUAGES Scandinavia’s remoteness from the center of European political strife has not saved the region from the inconveniences arising from linguistic clashes. Especially is this true where political and linguistic boundaries do not coincide. The Danish-German frontier has been marked by antagonism between Danes and Germans. Denmark’s hold on Schleswig-Holstein prior to 1866 had engendered bitter feeling among Germans, who considered the subjection of their kinsmen settled on the right bank of the Elbe estuary as unnatural. After Prussia had annexed the contested region, it was the Danes’ turn to feel dissatisfied and to claim the districts occupied by their countrymen. The problem of Schleswig-Holstein is a direct consequence of Germany’s geography. By its position in Europe the Teutonic empire is essentially a land power. Its maritime development began in the midst of adverse natural conditions in the northern confines of the country. The southern Baltic and the North Sea are both shallow. Sandbanks and winter ice hamper navigation in the easternmost stretch of these waters. An outlet exists only in the round-about and rock-studded Danish straits. The Oder, Elbe and Ems are constantly discharging material collected from the mountainous heart of Europe. The harbors of the northwestern shore are artificial and require ceaseless watching, for all of which German navigation pays a heavy annual tax. The Danish tongue of land which divides Germany’s northern sea boundary into two separate regions contains in its eastern and northern coasts the very advantages which Germany cannot find on its northern frontier. Eastern Jutland boasts a few natural harbors located at the head of the indentations which impart a fiord-like aspect to this coast and which in course of time have grown into centers of commercial activity. German shipping circles would consider the annexation of the Danish peninsula to Germany as a measure leading to high economic advantages, even though the construction of the Kiel canal has materially changed conditions which affected the Danish-German situation when the duchies of Schleswig and Holstein were annexed in 1866.