The Roman tenure of Devonshire was of a very limited character, and can have had little effect upon the inhabitants. The Saxon occupation of the district was more of the nature of colonisation than of conquest. By the time they had crossed Somerset the Saxons were, at least nominally, Christians; and although their treatment of the original occupants was none too gentle, as, for instance, in the expulsion of the Britons from Exeter by Athelstan, it seems likely that the two races settled quietly down together, the Saxons probably becoming the land-owners, and the Celts the peasantry. It is thought that the main population of the county is Celtic, of one or other of the three waves of Celtic invasion. There are in Devonshire many Celtic place-names, especially of hills and rivers; and some of the latter, with the addition of Saxon endings, such as _ham_, _ton_, and _stock_, survive also in the names of towns. In some cases, curious English-looking names can be traced to Celtic words of quite another meaning. Thus, Bowerman's Nose, the name of a famous crag on Dartmoor, is probably a corruption of _Veor maen_, "the great stone." The dialect of Devonshire, like the very similar speech of west Somerset, is Saxon, with strong traces of Celtic influence in its pronunciation. One of many peculiarities is the sound of the diphthongs _oo_ and _ou_, which are pronounced like the French _u_ or the German _ü_. Another peculiarity is the great variety of the vowel sounds, and the indistinctness or modification of some of the consonants. Again, _th_ and even _v_ are often sounded like _dh_. It is also very characteristic to put _d_ for _th_ as, for instance, _datch_ for _thatch_, or _dishle_ for _thistle_. There are many words in common use in Devonshire which are almost or entirely unknown elsewhere, and which may be regarded as survivals of ancient Saxon or, in some cases, British speech. Such, for example, are:-- _whisht_, weird, uncanny, lonely, "overlooked." _cloam_, earthenware. _clam_, a foot-bridge. _yark_, lively. _stivery_, disordered. _clunk_, to swallow. _giglets_, young men or women seeking new situations. _havage_, character. _zamzoaky_, tepid. _coochey_, clumsy. _mawn_, a basket. _frickety_, heavy, sodden. _pluff_, not well. _spraggetty_, spotted. _dimpety_, dusk. _chicket_, cheerful. _spilsky_, lean. _fess_, smart. _plum_, soft. _scamlin_, irregular. _thurdle_, miserable. _sklum_, to grasp roughly. _yaw_, to bite. _shugg_, shy. _ippet_, a lizard. It should be remembered that some of the forms of Devonshire dialect which strike the educated ear as ungrammatical are really survivals of pure Saxon speech, such as was in use at the courts of Alfred the Great and Athelstan. English in other parts of England has undergone great changes. In the West Country it has in some respects kept closer to the original forms.