Language. The physical diversity of Europe is reflected by its cultural variety expressed in language. The languages spoken by nine out of ten Europeans in the nineteenth century were Indo-European. The most important subfamilies within this heritage are the Romance, Germanic, and Slavic. Speakers of Romance languages generally inhabit western and southern Europe and include the Spanish, Portuguese, Catalans, French, and Italians. Romanian is also a Romance language. Geographically, the region of Romance dominance reflects the areas where the Roman Empire was most deeply established, and, not surprisingly, Romance languages are in part derived from Latin. Germanic languages dominate in northwestern, central, and northern Europe, all regions never completely integrated into the Roman Empire. By the nineteenth century these languages included English, German, Dutch, and the Scandinavian tongues of Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Icelandic. The third major subfamily of the common Indo-European...