Quote Originally Posted by Rob View Post
Genetic studies show that the vast majority of English people (about 95%) were not descended from the Anglo-Saxon invaders/settlers of the 5th/6th centuries, so to label the English as being Anglo-Saxons is inaccurate.
Which genetic studies are those? I doubt very much that 95% of English people are indigenes and studies such as http://class.csueastbay.edu/anthropo.../Weale2002.pdf and this http://class.csueastbay.edu/anthropo...pf20005%20.pdf show something quite different. Although I do agree that the Victorian concept of complete population replacement is patently not true either. Plus, the implications of the genetic results are not as clear as they appear.

For example, someone could have 7 out of 8 great-grandparents who were Vikings and one Irish. That person could easily have inherited a single genetic trait that was being tested for that would show him as Irish when the vast majority of his DNA, and probably his language and identity, was Viking. So the genetic studies are not that straightforward. And that is assuming that that particular trait is 100% prevalent in one population and 0% in another.

There are visible signs of genetic variation in Britain though. Blonde hair is much more common in Hampshire and red hair is far more common in Oban. The red-head in Oban may even speak Gaelic making him a Celt!

Quote Originally Posted by Rob View Post
Most of the English of today were descendents of the post-Ice Age migrants from Northern Iberia, just as the Welsh, Scots and Irish were. Their ancestors spoke a Celtic language just as the ancestors of the Welsh, Scots and Irish did, so if the definition of a 'Celt' is someone who speaks (or whose ancestors spoke) a Celtic language, then the English are just as much Celts as the Scots are.
I don't think you can stretch the definition of Celt back the requisite 1500 years to make the English Celts . Let me make the meaning of what I initially said clearer. The English who have the most Anglo-Saxon cultural influence, predominantly in the south, could not except by the wildest stretches of the imagination, be considered Celts, which is a language and culture based grouping...