This collection of selected papers from the 26th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL26, held in Heidelberg on September 4-8, 2023) marks a milestone of 50 years since the inaugural conference of the International Society for Historical Linguistics (ISHL) in Edinburgh in 1973. It presents a wide range of contemporary trends in this vibrant and expanding area of linguistics. The topics include discussion of linguistic method, theory, principles of language change, explanation of pertinacity in change, historical sociolinguistics, language and cognition, and language contact, applied to empirical data from the different language levels, but also revealing interaction of levels such as between syntax and pragmatics. The contents include a discussion of reconstruction methods, of different kinds of expectancy, and of ideological backgrounds of language evaluation and acceptance. This volume also demonstrates the typological diversity of contemporary historical linguistics and some of the employed quantitative methods. The concluding chapter presents an overview of facts, figures and topics of fifty years of conferences on historical linguistics.
