Millennia of language change : sociolinguistic studies in deep historical linguistics Were Stone Age languages really more complex than their modern counterparts Was Basque actually once spoken over all of Western Europe Were Welsh speaking slaves truly responsible for the loss of English morphology This latest collection of Peter Trudgills most seminal articles explores these questions and more. Focused around the theme of sociolinguistics and language change across deep historical millennia (the Palaeolithic era to the Early Middle Ages) the essays explore topics in historical linguistics dialectology sociolinguistics language change linguistic typology geolinguistics and language contact phenomena. Each paper is fully updated for this volume and includes linking commentaries and summaries for easy cross reference. This collection will be indispensable to academic specialists and graduate students with an interest in the sociolinguistic aspects of historical linguistics.