Posted Jul 24, 2008 by YoungWoodwolf
Frist of all hello, am new to this page.
I've been reading all the postings about our celtic roots and I must say its all very interesting, but not surprising.
But what can we call ourselves from Devon, Celts or Saxon?
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Posted Jul 26, 2008 by Plymouth Exile
YoungWoodwolf,
Welcome to the forum.
What you call yourself depends very much on which aspects of your heritage you feel are most important. Genetic surveys and analyses (by Capelli et al, Sykes, and Oppenheimer) have all clearly shown that Devonian ancestry (as with Cornish ancestry) is of the order of 78% derived from the original post-Ice Age settlers from Northern Iberia. These early settlers were not Celts as such, as the Celtic family of languages did not exist at this time (about 10,000BC). The Brythonic Celtic language probably came to South West Britain with later (smaller scale) migrations from the same region of Iberia. The same is true for all of the people who are currently considered to be Celts, whether or not they still speak a Celtic language. The term ‘predominantly indigenous British’ would certainly apply to Devonians.
The English language (derived from Anglo-Saxon, i.e. Old English) came late to Devon, and there are good historical indications that the Brythonic tongue survived as a minority language long after the Norman Conquest swept away the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. It is thought (from the genetic record) that only a tiny percentage of Devon’s population derived their ancestry from 5th/6th century Anglo-Saxon invaders/settlers. However, as with most of the descendents of the indigenous (post-Ice Age) Britons, the current language is now overwhelmingly English. Therefore if the term ‘Saxon’ is meant as an ancestral descriptor, it is not particularly appropriate to Devonians on the whole.
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Posted Aug 2, 2008 by tivvyboy
Young Woodwolf, welcome.
I agree with Plymouth Exile, but also the best descriptor for Devonian is simply that, Devonian.
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