It means to speak either Romance or Germanics languages
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It means to speak either Romance or Germanics languages
It's a lie that the celts have no genetic connections. The fact is, is that their genetic connections are just so distant, they are barely closer to each other than to other groups. Most celtic people fall heavily under the 'Atlantic' genotype, and it is likely what distinguishes them. Now the whole Basque dilema boils down to this: The proto italo-celts moved into iberia between 4 & 5 thousand years ago, they intermarried with the local women, almost completely replacing them genetically when it comes to Y-haplogroups, but still retain about half indigenous iberian, then for whatever reason the indo-europeans in the east adopt the native's culture, and in the west they remain italo-celtic which develops into proto celtic as a lingua franca of atlantic trade and possibly Lusitanian as an isolate dialect. The Celts of west france migrate east displacing the native italo-celtic dialects (likely related to italic & venetic) making them celtic. The irish, and hispano-celts remain isolated from the Hallstatt & La Tene cultures, causing them to not adopt the P-celtic changes. The celts of the north east of france back-migrate into southern Britain. The Romans invade making western europe Latin in dialect except for rural parts of Britain and Gaul. Romans leave britain, and the Brittons go back to speaking their own language except in church. Some irish invade western scotland, or just assimilate it. English invade Britain making most English half celtic half germanic. That's my understanding of the story of the celts.
Their identity then, is not just one of language, but of common decent from the western italo-celts, whoever they may have been, as well as the trace amounts of Vasconic heritage they have in common as well.
It's to be a member of the Celtic branch of Indo-European speakers.
To be long dead.
Nothing it's a meaningless term in the modern world.
To be able to effortlessly drink 6 or more beers in one night. If you puke or get a hangover, you're not a real Celt.