More than any other European language English has been shaped by its s with other languages such as Celtic Latin Scandinavian and French. This is true not only of the vocabulary but also of morphology and even phonology and syntax. But also the between different varieties of English played an important role especially in the shaping of the Englishes outside England. The papers contained in this volume deal with such s from various points of views. Major topics are the restructuring of lexical fields by borrowing processes in Old Middle and Early Modern English the influence of Scandinavian on the morphology the influence of Latin on English syntax the development of Middle English verse meter under Italian influence the origin of spelling conventions the role of codeswitching and language mixing for the development of the language and the role of language in general in Central Europe.