[xkaydet65]

So the English are related to Germans. Duh!!! It's called Angle"s Land, after the invasion/migration of north german Angles and Saxons into Britain in the late fifth and early sixth century. This is the source of the Legend of Arthur, who was probably a Celtic chieftain rallying the tribes after the departure of the Legions in 410 had left the Celtic Britons on their own. So complete was the Anglo Saxon triumph that some say there is not a place in England that bears a Celtic name, nor a word in English that remains from the Gaelic of the Celts. Is it so hard to believe that the descendants of these invaders would dominate the land genetically?

[WoofDog123]

"So complete was the Anglo Saxon triumph that some say there is not a place in England that bears a Celtic name, nor a word in English that remains from the Gaelic of the Celts. Is it so hard to believe that the descendants of these invaders would dominate the land genetically?"

There are like a whopping 2 or 3 loanwords surviving into modern english. Crag is one, i think but am not sure tor is another.

On the otherhand, placenames (romano-british, in any event) DID survive in good part, though sometimes with addition of an OE suffix, i.e. cester. many anciently-sited cities, most rivers, etc., have kept elements of their historical names (either roman , maybe pre-roman), often very recognisable. Placenames, of course, are the LAST language artifact to change, and many european place-names go back with some mutation as far as we have recorded history, despite howevermany invasions, ethnic replacements, conquests, etc., went on.

As far as the genetic issue, surprisingly there is a decent mix of celtic genes in the english population, much more than had been expected based on the apparent total eradication of romano-celtic culture. I think I saw the article on FR a couple of months ago, or if not on archaeologica.org. I cannot remember the details now, but it implied a decent % of celtic breeding stock (women or slaves or whatever) remained in the saxon/anglish areas.