The volume features new work in English historical linguistics. It focuses on Medieval Englishes, but also discusses how processes originating there continued to unfold in later stages of linguistic evolution. In language internal terms, it deals with phonological, morphological, lexical and syntactic constituents. At the same time, cognitive, pragmatic and social factors are taken into account. All contributions go back to papers delivered at the 13th International Conference of English Historical Linguistics, held at Vienna in 2004. They address central questions from new perspectives, report empirical findings, point out new directions for research, make new methods relevant for the historical study of English, manage to revise established views, and provide a good survey of issues currently discussed in the community of historical English linguists.