# The Scots: Germanic people? When? In what proportion? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 1, 2003, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scots-germanic-people-when-in-what-proportion/179020 "2003-06-01T23:17:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scots-germanic-people-when-in-what-proportion/179020/21 "2008-09-27T20:31:54Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > Paul Theroux traveled around Great Britain’s coast for his book _The Kingdom by the Sea_ and picked up hints of the countries across the sea in the four directions: at Dover he smelled garlic in the air as a _soupçon_ of France across the Channel; in Liverpool he noticed the strong Irish presence; the bleak countryside around John O’ Groats reminded him of Scandinavia; and the flat, orderly fields of East Anglia reminded him of Holland. I like Theroux’s travel writing a great deal, but he’s a _very_ unreliable narrator. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2008, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scots-germanic-people-when-in-what-proportion/179020/22 "2008-09-27T20:35:38Z")
Ah, five year old thread. Sorry. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scots-germanic-people-when-in-what-proportion/179020/23 "2008-09-28T00:10:32Z")
Did a double-take when I realized I was reading a **Tamerlane** post. ---
**Author:** ![Aquila\_Be](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a698b9/32.png) [@Aquila\_Be](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquila_Be)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scots-germanic-people-when-in-what-proportion/179020/24 "2008-09-28T09:33:10Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > (A new genetic survey of Y chromosomes throughout the British Isles has revealed a very different story. The Celtic inhabitants of Britain were real survivors. Nowhere were they entirely replaced by the invaders and they survive in high proportions, often 50 percent or more, throughout the British Isles, according to a study by Dr. Cristian Capelli, Dr. David B. Goldstein and others at University College London. So, genetically speaking, English folk are mostly Celtic folk. Why did I just type this in English?😕 ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scots-germanic-people-when-in-what-proportion/179020/25 "2008-09-28T11:37:19Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > The Scottish language is one of two Germanic languages spoken in Great Britain (the other one being English). This is according to the _Oxford Companion to the English Language_, s.v. “Scottish.” > > The book also reported that linguists of England regard Scottish as a dialect of English … while Scots linguists say Scottish is a separate language in its own right. > … > > The Scottish Gaelic language, spoken in the Highlands, is Celtic. The Scottish language mentioned above (not to be confused with Scots Gaelic), also known as “Lallands” (i.e. Lowlands), is descended from Anglo-Saxon. Both languages have been used in Scotland since the Anglo-Saxons occupied Britain. I’m surprised the Oxford Companion uses the ambiguous term ‘Scottish’ to talk of Scots, the latter being how I’d have expected to talk of it. This being becase ‘Scottish’ is sometimes used to mean Scottish Gaelic, as a parallel to ‘Irish’ referring to Irish Gaelic. Also, just to muddy the never-clear waters between ‘dialect’ and ‘language’ further, my Irish-speaking grandfather insisted that the Donegal Irish he found himself speaking late in life was much closer to Scottish Gaelic than to the Cork Irish he’d learnt as a boy. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scots-germanic-people-when-in-what-proportion/179020/26 "2008-09-28T12:07:39Z")
Aquila Be writes: \> Why did I just type this in English? No one is quite clear why this happened, but it’s now believed that while the language of the Anglo-Saxons who came to Britain (i.e., the ancestor of English) supplanted the Celtic languages of Britain pretty quickly in England except in the Cornish peninsula, the Anglo-Saxons did not push the Celtic people there aside. The Celtic peoples stayed and intermarried with the invaders. Within a few more centuries English mostly supplanted the Celtic languages in Cornwall, the Isle of Man, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. No one knows why this happened this way. Norman French didn’t supplant English, despite being the language of the dominant group, although it added a lot of words to English. There aren’t even very many Celtic-derived words in English compared to French, where a lot of Celtic-derived words are found. France was also mostly a Celtic-speaking land before the time of the Romans. I’ve seen a list of words in English that are eventually derived from Celtic languages. A lot of them (and certainly most of the common ones) are actually words from Celtic languages that were adopted into French and then brought into English by the Normans. You can hypothesize about why things happened this way (and doubtlessly other posters will, stretching this thread to great lengths), but basically you just have to say that that’s how it happened and no one is sure why. ---
**Author:** ![Germanian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/34f0e0/32.png) [@Germanian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Germanian)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scots-germanic-people-when-in-what-proportion/179020/27 "2013-07-10T04:02:31Z")
Yes there are racially pure ethnicities, today the Scots are a cross between Anglo-Saxon and Norse The ‘highlands’ Scots are Celtic The Scots are an 100 % germanic culture (norse and Angle and Saxon are all germanic) They also share a germanic culture and language of it’s own cultural group (not sub english but a brother of old English) The house of Wessex was on the islands of Britain before any celts but they died off and the celts took their place, except for the ‘lowland’ Scots who survived and during the times of the Romans the Scots were infant germanic and not Celtic (they never met the highlands Scots or Cimbrians who are of Celtic descent) The Scots are a different type of the first group of Anglo-Saxons who later returned and repopulated both England and Scotland with germanic peoples who became the English and the Scots even the norse were there before the celts and mixed with the Scots years before the Normans and norse return (for orkney, and shetland currently scotland were norse) Sources, many I’m the expert on cultural ethnicities ---
**Author:** ![Germanian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/34f0e0/32.png) [@Germanian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Germanian)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scots-germanic-people-when-in-what-proportion/179020/28 "2013-07-10T04:07:50Z")
Hate to say this The ones of u who said english and Scottish are Celtic are misinformed due to current un updated studies… If the point of this is to educate, I’m helping all of u… If you don’t believe me u truly are straight dopes Nah, I’m just kidding But seriously I can’t stand it when people learn the wrong stuff not your faults ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2013, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scots-germanic-people-when-in-what-proportion/179020/29 "2013-07-10T05:11:52Z")
Re: Posts #27 and #28. See this [link](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/irony?s=t). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-scots-germanic-people-when-in-what-proportion/179020.md?page=1)