The Greeks and Albanians belong to the great Indo-European family of tribes, but their languages are not closely related to any of the four great branches.

[Map:  Distribution Of Languages]

The two maps on pages 65 and 66 are very much alike and yet in some respects very different.  The first shows how Europe is largely inhabited by peoples of the great Indo-European family.  Those who are descended from the Celts are marked Celtic even though today they have 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

(c) Celtic branch Gae’lic (northern Scotland)
                     Welsh
                     Cornish (dead)
                     Erse (Irish)
                     Bre’ton (western France)

(d) Latin branch Portuguese
                     Spanish
                     French
                     Romansh (southeastern Switzerland)
                     Italian
                     Roumanian

(e) Germanic branch Norwegian
                     Danish
                     Swedish
                     Dutch
                     Flemish (Belgium)
                     Low German
                     High German
                     English