Nabatean dialects are said to be the only modern forms of the Aramaic, and are spoken by only a small population of villagers under the stimulus of missionary zeal. These reside for the most part east of the main population of Syria. Syria is an ancient rather than a modern term, although used, in a narrower sense, by the Turkish Government. It properly comprises all the region lying between the eastern end of the Mediterranean and the desert and is about 430 miles long by 100 wide. Palestine constitutes only one-tenth of it. Of the 3,000,000 (estimated) population of Syria, the Syrians probably outnumber the Arabs, Turks, and Jews, although there are more Mohammedans than Christians in Syria. The Christians number 900,000. The population of Palestine, 800,000, consists mainly of Arabs, notwithstanding the recent colonization of Jews in the Holy Land. Among other inhabitants of Syria closely related to the Syrians, if not of the same blood, are descendants of the Phoenicians, inhabitants of the coast districts; the Maronites, Christians of the Lebanon; the Druses, half pagan and unfriendly neighbors of the Maronites; and the Nusarieh or Ansarieh, descendants of the Nazarini, who are called Fellahin in Syria, and who do not seem to be orthodox in their Mohammedanism. The total Syrian immigration to the United States for the twelve years 18991910, was 56,909. The race stands twenty-fifth in rank among immigrant peoples. 66 TEUTONIC. A great branch of the Aryan (see) family of languages and races," including all those of northwestern Europe excepting the Celtic (see). Its many subdivisions are shown in the following table from Keane, with the exception of Dutch and Flemish, which are variously classed as Low Frankish or Low Saxon: TURKISH. In the narrow sense, the people now dominant in Turkey; called by themselves "Osmanlis," that is, Ottomans. Immigration statistics are to be understood in this popular sense of the word, although some ethnologists define the word "Turkic" in a much broader sense to include all the Tataric group of the Sibiric branch of the Mongolian division of mankind. In this sense it includes not only the Osmanlis of Turkey, but other peoples of eastern Russia, such as the Tatars, the Kirghiz-Kazaks, and the Turkomans, and also the older relatives of this group stretching across Asia from Turkey to central Siberia, such as the Yakuts. While we apply the name "Turks" only to the Osmanlis, they themselves apply it only to provincials; and we do not apply it to the Tatars, although the latter call themselves "Türki." With all the foregoing may be combined the Lapps, Finns, Magyars, and other non-Caucasian Europeans to make up the larger group variously known as the "Finno-Tatar," the 'Turanian," or the "Ural-Altaic.” 66 The linguistic relationship of all these peoples is much closer to-day than the physical. The languages are agglutinative, like the Japanese, not inflected like the speech of the Arabs, Syrians, Armenians, and Hebrews subject to Turkey. Physically and in culture the Turks have become Europeanized, though to a less degree than the related Finns and Magyars. Instead of becoming blond, as the Finns, they have approached the brunette type of southern Europe, probably in part through their frequent intermarriages with the Circassian and other Mohammedan peoples of the Caucasus. In fact, to-day they are not so much Turkish by blood as Arabian, Circassian, Persian, Armenian, Greek, and Slavic. They prefer to be considered as Arabo-Persian in culture rather than as Turkish. In religion they are almost universally Mohammedan. They are not included in one of the five grand divisions of the Bureau of Immigration, but are put under the term "All others," along with the Magyars and Armenians. We may put under the term "All others" also the Tataric peoples of eastern Russia and other races of the Caucasus, who are rarely found among our immigrants. (See Russian.) The Turks are in the minority in their own country, especially in the European part of Turkey, where the Turks, Greeks, Albanians, and "Slavs" (Bulgarians and Servians) are said by some writers to be found in nearly equal parts. The first three named have been estimated to constitute 70 per cent of the population. No census of Turkey has ever been taken. The following estimates are compiled from various sources. The entire Ottoman Empire, excluding states practically independent, has a population of about 24,000,000. Of these, 10,000,000 are Turks. In European Turkey, 1,500,000 out of a population of 6,000,000 are Turks. Here they are without doubt decreasing in numbers. In Macedonia, the geographical center of European Turkey, the Turks number about 500,000 out of a population of 2,200.000. Of the latter number, however,, only about 1.300,000 are Christians. In the capital itself, Constantinople, the Turks constitute only about one-half of the population of 1,200,000. In Turkey in Asia, on the other hand, the Turkish race is in the majority. The Mohammedans number perhaps 10,000,000 in a total population of 13,000,000 in Asiatic Turkey and Armenia. There are about 500,000 Turks in Bulgaria out of a total population of 4,000,000. The Mohammedan population of Bosnia and Herzegovina-550,000 out of a total of 1,600,000-is mainly Slavic rather than Turkish. In Servia and Greece there is practically no Turkish population. Only 12,954 Turkish immigrants were admitted to the United States in the twelve years 1899-1910. Only about 1 out of 5 of our Turkish immigrants comes from Turkey in Europe. Occasionally an immigrant from Turkey insists that he is a Macedonian rather than a Turk, Bulgarian, Greek, or Albanian; he may be a Tsintsar, Vlach, or Aromuni, names applied to those who speak a Macedonian dialect of the Roumanian. The Tsintsars number about 90,000, of whom about 3.000 are Mohammedans. WELSH. The principal people of Wales; linguistically, a division of the Cymric branch of the Celtic group of Aryans (see); physically, a mixed race. The term "Welsh" is also used to mean any native or naturalized inhabitant of Wales, but thus used it is a term of nationality, not an ethnical one. The Welsh language is the most important member of the Cymric division of Celtic tongues (see). It is an ancient and distinct tongue so far as history carries us, and since the eighth century has had a literature nearly, if not quite, as rich as that of the Irish, which is the most important division of the other branch of Celtic tongues, the Gaelic. In modern literature the Welsh excels all other Celtic languages, for there are several quarterlies, monthlies, and weeklies . printed in it, some of which have thousands of subscribers. It is the fireside speech of nearly half the population of Wales, and is used in the churches and the church schools. The Welsh eisteddfod, or musical and literary meeting, is very popular, not only in Wales, but in large Welsh colonies in the United States and in Australia. Nevertheless, the Welsh language, like all other Celtic tongues, is losing ground. Its nearest kinsman, the Cornish, became extinct a little over a century ago. Ravenstein says that 70 per cent of the population of Wales for 1871 could speak Welsh. The census of 1901 shows only about 50 per cent of the population able to speak Welsh. Yet, as compared with other Celtic tongues, Welsh is still quite vigorous. For, while less than 1 per cent of the populations of Scotland and Ireland can speak a Celtic tongue only, 15 per cent of the population of Wales speak Welsh only. Only in Brittany, France, is another Celtic language, the Breton, so extensively used. Physically, the Welsh are anything but homogeneous, for Beddoe finds at least two physical races in Wales not yet thoroughly amalgamated. One is the "Northern," whose representatives are tall, long-headed, light-eyed, darkish haired-a type that reminds one of the Irish (see). The other presents quite a contrast. It is short, compactly built, broader-headed, of dark complexion, with dark eyes. This type is thought to belong to the "Alpine" race, called by some, perhaps hastily, the "Celtic" (see) physical type. Here again is a difference between the Cymric people of Wales and the Gaelic peoples of Ireland and Scotland, for in the latter physical anthropologists fail to find evidence to warrant an "Alpine" origin. In religion the Welsh are, for the most part, Protestants, dissenters from the Church of England. Geographically, the Welsh are found in Wales and in that part of England immediately adjoining Wales, especially in Monmouthshire. The population of Wales in 1901 was 1,720,600 and that of Monmouthshire was 230,800. Not all of these, however, are Welsh, for many of English blood now reside in Wales. Nearly 1,000,000 persons speak the Welsh language. The Welsh do not form numerically an important element in American immigration. Only 20,752 came to the United States in the twelve years 18991910. This places them near the end of the list of immigrants. Their rate of movement is low, 1.4 per 1,000 of the population of Wales in 1907. WEST INDIAN. Defined by the Bureau of Immigration thus: "West Indian' refers to the people of the West Indies other than Cuba (not Negroes)." Those of Indian blood also are counted separately. (Cf. Indian, Negro, Cuban, Mexican, Spanish-American.) "West Indian" is therefore rather a geographical term than strictly ethnological. It does not include the original West Indian aborigines but only the native whites or "creoles" of the islands, and does include such dissimilar ethnical elements as Dutch, English, French, and Spanish colonists. The last named have given the dominant character to the civilization of this tropical country, and have left their language not only in the islands which until recently belonged to Spain, as Cuba and Porto Rico, but also in Santo Domingo and portions of the Lesser Antilles. English, French, and Dutch are spoken in some of the smaller islands. Reclus says that threefifths of the population of the West Indies are mulattoes. Excluding the 3,000,000 inhabitants of Cuba and Porto Rico, the rest of the West Indies contain about 3,000,000. Nearly one-half of these are in the three English islands of Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbados. Naturally the white immigration to the United States from these populations is small. Only 11,569 West Indians were admitted to the United States as immigrants in the twelve years 1899-1910. WHITE RUSSIAN. (See Russian.) |