To browse Academia. Francis Rogel and family tolerated my early and doubtless rather enigmatic presence with good humour. Henri Cabillic, secretary to the town hall, with his intimate knowledge of local history, has interests which met mine in many ways, and has given me all variety of help; not least in introducing me to his family, who have given greatly of friendship, hospitality and instruction, both to myself and to my wife.
The Mayor of Plouhinec, Henri Cogan, was always a source of robust kindliness and encouragement, and an expression of thanks to him serves, in some respects, as an expression of thanks to the entire commune.
The Association Sportif de Plouhinec, a central institution of male social life in Plouhinec, allowed me to take part in its affairs, and I am grateful to its management, players and supporters. Doris Ducancelle provided me with much needful friendship, help and advice at an early stage in fieldwork.
Her daughter, Laura Ducancelle, was a copious source of information and encouragement. I owe much to Guillaume Floc'h, a native of Plouhinec with linguistic and cultural interests rather like my own. Many aspects of our conversation are reflected in what follows, and I make general acknowledgement here of this.
My greatest debt in Plouhinec is to 'A Branch of Indo-European' The adjective 'Celtic' has its most respectable and formal use within linguistics. The idea of the Indo-European languages is a result of the increasingly scholarly and scientific study of language in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Similarities between otherwise very different languages in Europe had long been noticed, with erudite Romans speculating on the relationship of their own language to Greek.
