An interesting look at the religions and language groups that are elements of division (and union) in Europe. The mapmaker wanted to make a point by indicating three ‘core areas’ where a certain language group and religion overlap – resulting in an area that is Germanic+Protestant, another one that’s Slavic+Orthodox and one that is Romance+Catholic. I’m not sure which point…
This seems to be originating from a textbook for some school?
The question that is asked is interesting; what does this teach us? I think nothing; exactly like you’re saying; I’m not sure what point there is. It only teaches that there are some boundaries. The transitional areas that we are supposed to give special attention to only show that there are sometimes almost none and that the mapmaker didn’t really know what to do with area’s such as Greece, Finland&The Baltics or Hungary because the language doesn’t fit the scheme. ;)
Maybe only Belgium, Ireland and Poland are real transitional Area’s.
Comment by ThE_ED — November 8, 2006 @ 4:37 pm
Another map by Terry Jordan, this one from his cultural geography textbook The Human Mosaic. The point of the map is indeed to show that the boundaries of culture regions are not clearly delimited, but are areas of transition.
Comment by Joy — November 9, 2006 @ 4:30 pm
My biggest problem with the map is that Finish and Hungarian do not belong any of the language groups presented in the map (Slavic, Romance or Germanic).
Comment by Anders Dahnielson — November 10, 2006 @ 10:43 pm
Well, Anders, the map does reflect that fact, so what’s your problem?
Comment by Anton Sherwood — November 19, 2006 @ 9:52 pm
I’m pretty sure Romanian is a Romance language.
Comment by Greco — January 20, 2007 @ 1:29 am
Yes, indeed Greco, maybe the maker thought it was nice just to include the whole of Romania with Hungary because of the large Hungarian minority there?
Comment by ThE_ED — January 23, 2007 @ 12:15 am
Romanians (note the name) claim they are Roman. Hence they speak “Latin”.
Comment by Robert — March 11, 2007 @ 7:22 am
Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and dozens of other languages/dialects on the map are Finno-Ugric, not Romance, Germanic or Slavic. Plus the extent of the Finnish/Finnic languages is far beyond that.
Comment by Fulmen — March 25, 2007 @ 10:31 pm
I’m sure the Irish, Belgians, and Austrians will be surprised to learn that they speak Slavic languages.
Comment by bingley — April 6, 2007 @ 12:36 am
Unfortunately,another confusing and approximative map, probably published in a manual. Is this map for the American pupils?
Comment by Vlad — May 5, 2007 @ 12:34 pm
@The_Ed:Is 8% a large percent for you?
and@Anders:yes this Europe division is absurd because Europe has “islands” like Hungary, Finland, Albania, Romania, Greece, some with unique languages ( like Greece ), or separated from the “block” ( like Romania, a latin “island” in a slavic “ocean”)
Comment by vlad — May 12, 2007 @ 5:31 pm
It is an attempt to show that there is a connection between language and religion. A moments thought would have shown this is nonsense – English was imposed on Ireland but it remained predominantely Catholic inspite of terrible suffering through centuries of resistance. As late as 1970 40% of Germans were Catholic – it has dropped substantially since – but that reflects the increasing secularism of all Europe. The fact is Catholicism stayed overwhelmingly predominant in the romance speaking countries because during the Reformation they were controlled by powerful Catholic monarchies – in France there were in fact religious civil wars. In Spain and Italy Protestantism wasnt given a chance and in Bavaria the combined Spanish-Imperial army smashed the, until then, triumphant Protestant Swedish army.
Comment by Rob — May 29, 2007 @ 3:24 am
I should have also have mentioned that Austria, once the centre of a large and powerful kingdom under the Habsburgs, was staunchly Catholic, and Germanic speaking – as were many smaller principalities and cities in the Holy Roman Empire
Comment by Rob — May 29, 2007 @ 3:41 am
It is not clear where Romania belongs – transition? While Romania is a Christian orthodox country, it is NOT a Slavic language country, but a Romance language country.
Comment by tapirul — June 13, 2007 @ 9:23 pm
tapirul, yes, the map explicitly shows that Romania is Orthodox and not Slavic.
Rob, yes, the map explicitly shows that not all Germanic regions are Protestant. I wouldn’t say “a connection between language and religion” but rather that languages and religions tend to be propagated in the same ways; if the distribution of Protestantism is an accident of military history, so is the distribution of languages!
It’s remarkable how many of the comments complain that the map purports to reduce everything to three neat divisions, when it explicitly shows large areas that do not fit.
Comment by Anton Sherwood — July 1, 2007 @ 6:08 pm
The map depicts Switzerland as being solidly Catholic. Any student of history should know that is silly! Switzerland was the home of Calvin of Zwingli. Today, it is actually about half Protestant and half Catholic. (Usually, a Swiss canton will be solidly one or the other).
Comment by jm — July 10, 2007 @ 9:53 pm
Learn to read maps, I guess the orange did not scan well into the legend.
biggest mistake with presenting data on maps: understanding that proximity does not imply or infer a causal relationship.
the map author explicitly uses the words “ONLY TWO TRAITS” when refering to 2 sets of binary variables. Are there exceptions? Always have been and those were caused by variables not presented.most of the complaints, right or wrong, relate to the “other” variables. As a thought provoking exercise it succeeds.
are religion and language related? in some cases they correlate and in others they don’t. This means the the factors are related but not that there is a causal relationship. Just because lines overlap only means the lines overlap, nothing else. Also changing the base map to a boundary set from history will yield a different set of corelations.
Jm.Calvin and Zwingli were two different Swiss protestant reformers. Switzerland was not staunchly protestant by split between the two confessionals. Check your history. BTW The Vatican has a +400 year history of being protected by the Swiss Guards.
Comment by Shawn — September 15, 2007 @ 4:44 am
I have to say that the red Germanic/Romance dividing line running through Belgium is not quite accurate. In reality, if you enter from the North Sea, it’s almost a straight line to the southernmost tip of The Netherlands.
Comment by Ludwig — September 25, 2007 @ 11:15 am
Bingly writes, “Irish, Belgians, and Austrians will be surprised to learn that they speak Slavic languages.”
Bingly, you ignorant slut, learn to read a map!!
You have confused the religious line with the language line.
Comment by Bingly is a retard — November 28, 2007 @ 9:11 pm
Religious divisions are sometimes so prevalent in a country at times that it’s almost as if geographic areas define the religion of those living in them. Thus, maps such as these arise.
Comment by trademark registration — December 22, 2007 @ 2:19 am
I believe the map shows Romania correctly. Romanian is a Romance language and if you look at the red language borders it shows Romania being surrounded by Slavic on the North, East and South and by Germanic on the west. Romania’s red language border shows it as an isolated pocket with no label for language. I would asume that pocket is mostly Romance.
Comment by Howie — February 1, 2008 @ 11:14 pm
could I see all your maps dealing directly or not with POland?
thanks in advance paolo morawski
Comment by paolo — April 12, 2008 @ 10:09 am
Born in Europe, I think this is a fantastic map, even when it has clear short comings. If you know that the three major language groups are related (more so between the Slavic and the Romance language groups than the Germanic language group with the others) then you can overlook the differences a bit better between the Slavic and Romance language groups. According to me, their political history of language is that they write words differently (see the interesting part between the former parts of Yugoslavia). Even if you speak the same language, but write words with a different alphabet, a barrier of ideas is created.
No, it is not a perfect map, but it can be read quite well as an approximation in which political spheres of influence become expressed through religion and language. When viewed under a microscope it has many flaws, but when quickly blinking one cannot be happier than showing how political power, language, and religion are intertwined. It is food for thought for ourselves, because living in an English-speaking world we may (still) not get all information to make up our own minds freely.
Comment by Fredrick — June 18, 2008 @ 10:18 pm
Map showing homogeneity of Indo-European language group.
http://linguistics.buffalo.edu/people/faculty/dryer/dryer/map.europe.gif
Comment by Fredrick — June 18, 2008 @ 10:29 pm
This is the first map I have ever seen which shows Wales/Cymru as a Germanic country.Rhag eich cywilydd/Shame on you.
Comment by Rhys — August 13, 2008 @ 7:01 pm
Most people in Wales speak English, and even those who speak Welsh often do so as a second language. Similarly Gaelic in Ireland.
Maps like these with sweeping lines sure draw out the wistful nationalists…
Comment by Danivon — December 19, 2008 @ 6:05 pm
Очень странный взгляд
Comment by Attegrellehef — March 31, 2009 @ 9:52 pm
thanks alot
Comment by Tony — May 4, 2009 @ 2:24 am
thanks for this map
good
luck
Comment by Solomon — May 11, 2009 @ 7:04 am
merci
Comment by aspicco . — May 17, 2009 @ 4:49 am
teşekkür ederim
Comment by yory — June 12, 2009 @ 8:09 pm
Vielen Dank
Comment by moon — July 3, 2009 @ 3:47 am
Muchas gracias
Comment by sun — July 4, 2009 @ 6:29 am
[...] Formal culture regions of Europe | Larger version | Source [...]
Pingback by Nonformality | European Ethnolinguistics — November 19, 2009 @ 11:50 am
Not the best map (or scan?). The shade of beige and faded orange look almost identical on a computer screen.
Also, Hungarian and Romanian have nothing in common.
Also, afaik neither do Lithuanian and Latvian with Estonian and Finnish.
Also, Albania and half of Bosnia are Muslim, not Orthodox… as is Turkey.
So, an interesting idea, but poorly redacted by whoever made the map.
Comment by yo yo — December 9, 2009 @ 2:39 am