given up their Celtic language, as have the Cornish in England and the
inhabitants of Spain, France, eastern Belgium, and the greater part of
Ireland. The Bulgarians are marked as not belonging to the great
family, although they speak a Slavic language.

In the second map, the distribution of languages is shown. You
will notice that the Celtic languages are found only in small parts of
the British Isles, and in the westernmost point of France. The
Bulgarians are here marked Slavic because their language belongs to
that branch. One of the most curious things about the two maps is the
presence of little spots like islands, particularly made up of
German-speaking peoples. There are several of these little islands in
Russia. They have been there for nearly two hundred years. A traveler
crossing the southern part of Russia is astonished to find districts
as large as an American county where not a word of Russian is spoken.
The people are all of Germanic blood, although they live under the
government of Russia. In the same way, there is a large German island
in the midst of the Roumanians in Transylvania and another between the
Slovaks and Poles at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains. There is a
large Hungarian island in Transylvania also, entirely surrounded by
Germans and Roumanians. The table on the opposite page shows the main
branches of the Indo-European family that are found in Europe.


THE INDO-EURPOEAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES

(a) Hindu branch

(b) Persian branch