Were Celtic people closer to Germans or Latins?

Bluemoon   Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:09 pm GMT
Were Celtic people physically closer to Germanic people or Latin people?

I mean, were Celts mostly tall, blond, pale skined with blue-greenish eyes like Northern Europeans(typical Germans)?

Or were they mostly medium height, brunet to darker hair, darker skined and brown eyes like Southern Europeans(typical Latins)?
Ignorance   Sat Apr 04, 2009 4:39 pm GMT
There's no such thing as Germanic, Celtic or Latin people. Those are linguistic groups.
Robin Michael   Sat Apr 04, 2009 7:17 pm GMT
The Celtic linguistic group, composed of people who called themselves 'Celts'.

The Germanic linguistic group called themselves Angles, Saxons, Jutes, etc.

The Latin people were associated with the Western Roman Empire.



So, race and language are interlinked.

Often a 'people' will define themselves by their 'language'.
Ted   Sat Apr 04, 2009 8:13 pm GMT
So race is defined by language? So are historical rules like for example the one-drop rule to be considered anachronisms today?
Mickey   Sat Apr 04, 2009 8:50 pm GMT
One drop rule? LOL!

Troll, troll, troll away,
Gently down the thread.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.
Ted   Sat Apr 04, 2009 8:56 pm GMT
I knew that would probably be a sore point. I was just trying to point out the flaw in Robin Michael's post, that "race" is defined by language.
Hawk   Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:53 pm GMT
"One drop rule? LOL!

Troll, troll, troll away,
Gently down the thread.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream. "

I think Mr. Chief Troll himself is still around here somewhere...
Robin Michael   Sat Apr 04, 2009 11:40 pm GMT
One drop rule? "Touch of the tar brush"

I knew when I replied to this topic that it was a controversial subject. So, I gave an answer that based on the development of English in the British Isles.

Now-er-days, when people think of 'Latin' they think of 'South American', Italian, and Spanish.

Celts: Scots, Irish, Welsh and even Cornish. (Brittany)

Germanic: At Celtic v. Rangers football matches, the Celtic supporters refer to the Rangers supporters as 'Huns'.

The other thing I thought about was the image of Germanic people as being 'tall'. There is a nature / nurture argument: height is partly the result of good nutrition.
Skippy   Sun Apr 05, 2009 12:30 am GMT
It's really tough to tell, and difficult to say, but linguistically, as far as I've read, they're closer to Italic peoples, but genetically closer to Germanic peoples.
Robin Michael   Sun Apr 05, 2009 8:37 am GMT
I had a look at the Wikipedia site on Celtic people. It suggested that the majority of the people in the British Isles were genetically similar to people from Spain and Portugal. That there were various waves of new people from central Europe including Celts, Vikings, Angles, Saxons, etc.

In recent years the genetic makeup of the British Isles has undergone a dramatic change with no real public consultation.

One in nine British residents was born overseas - Telegraph

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4801442/One-in-nine-British-residents-was-born

Among the foreign-born population, the most common countries of birth were India (619,000 people), Poland (461,000), Ireland (416,000) and Pakistan (415,000).

“Britain looks different and has changed quite rapidly in recent years. Whether that’s a problem depends on your attitude,” he said.

An estimated 12.5 per cent of the population of Germany was born abroad; in France the proportion is thought to be almost as high.

There were also suggestions that the real level of immigration may be much higher.
Ted   Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:09 am GMT
"It's really tough to tell, and difficult to say, but linguistically, as far as I've read, they're closer to Italic peoples, but genetically closer to Germanic peoples. "

And that's why these discussions are always likely to be full of B.S. I don't claim t be an expert but I know that there is no such thing as Germanic people or a Celtic people. Language and genes are not connected. As mentioned in the above post, the majority of the genepool in the British isles (including English where it is around 2/3rd's) goes back to the first hunter-gatherers who migrated from what is now the Basque region of France/Spain, so that shows that language has nothing to do with genetic origins (that doesn't imply there isn't a "correlation").
fraz   Sun Apr 05, 2009 10:40 am GMT
The numbers in the Celtic languages are quite close to their French equivalents.
Bluemoon   Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:25 am GMT
Before the Anglo-Saxon invasion, the indigenous people in Britain were believed to be Celtic. I'm curious if the indigenous people were mostly "tall, blond and blue-eyed" or "short, brunet and brown-eyed."
I'm Tall   Sun Apr 05, 2009 12:01 pm GMT
Why is that important to you?
Bluemoon   Sun Apr 05, 2009 12:29 pm GMT
<Why is that important to you?>
I'm studying filming and movies and I'm making a movie about Celtic people.