From Peter Trudgill's foreword: The papers in this volume [...] were published over a period of more than 40 years, between 1973 and 2016, during which time my views and interests have of course changed and, hopefully, developed. The older pieces may perhaps therefore be of historical interest. Some of the chapters in this book are lengthy papers where I have worked out my ideas about language change and language structure through an examination of the Scandinavian languages. There are others which are briefer and lighter pieces; and the final section of the book consists of reviews and essays which are even briefer. I hope that at least some readers will find at least some of these contributions of at least some interest.