ABSTRACT
Introduction Despite the relative slimness of its corpus in comparison with that of the Insular Celtic languages, Continental Celtic has attracted the attention of leading scholars since the inception of the scientific study of Celtic. One of the primary reasons for this, of course, is the fact that it, for all of the problems that face us about the emergence of Celtic from some pre-Celtic IndoEuropean stratum (as well as the associated question of the relative age of Celtic), provides the oldest evidence available to us of the early Celtic linguistic record. The early pioneers of the study of Continental Celtic, like the specialists of today, recognized that, despite the great difficulties inherent within the subject, there are important rewards to be won.
