>a survey of British Y chromosomes shows that the Y chromosome
>characteristic of Celtic speakers, far from having disappeared,
>carried by a large proportion of the male population of Britain.
>Nowhere does the indigenous population seem to have been wiped out,
The classic puzzle, of course, is why English shows so few signs (or no
signs) of a Celtic substrate.
The classic answer used to be that the Celts were pushed out to the fringes,
so there was no substrate, but a number of people have questioned this
assumption over the last 20 years or so. Place names, and family names, do
show some signs of Celtic origin. The genetic information supports this new
idea that the Celts were absorbed in varying degrees across the country. So
the puzzle remains - why do we not see a stronger pattern of substrate
influence?
Peter