The Cantabrians ( Cantabrian and ) are the people who inhabit the

autonomous community The autonomous communities () are the first-level administrative divisions of Spain, created in accordance with the Spanish Constitution of 1978, with the aim of guaranteeing limited autonomy to the nationalities and regions that make up Sp ...

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

, in northern

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

."Even today, Cantabrians (the Pasiego included, Lebaniegos excluded), at the North of Spain, seem to be a genetically well differentiated community, as deduced from uniparental and autosomal markers, perhaps to a higher degree than their neighbours, the Basques". http://grupos.unican.es/acanto/aep/bolpas/Ann-Hum-Genet.pdf . Sometimes they are referred to as ''"montañeses"'' (meaning ''Highlanders''). The traditional dialects in this region, known as ''Cantabru'' or ''Montañés'', are related to the Astur-Leonese languages.

References

See also