This year’s conference, arranged by the Network of Historical Sociolinguists, HiSoN, took place at Bristol University (UK), the same institution where this network was established twenty years ago. Three days (May 21-23) were filled with presentations about ongoing research in language history, language ideology, and historical multilingualism. Advantages and challenges of working with special kinds of written heritage, such as sermons, periodicals, legal documents and letters, were discussed. Speakers shared their findings on the history and usage of English, Scots, Dutch, Icelandic, French, Spanish, Latin, Oscan, Basque, Greek, Nahuatl, and many other language varieties. The plenary speakers invited listeners to question the stereotypical language history views and summarised the network‘s achievements. Some questions, such as how to popularise the scientific view on the language history in society, how to match the knowledge about the newest scientific progress with the pragmatic side of the traditional language pedagogy, and how to ensure the accessibility of data for the researchers and ethical use of it after the research is published, were actively discussed but left open. The next HiSoN conference will be dedicated to research on spoken and written discourse in historical sources.
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