The Authors: Ronny Meyer, born 1970, studied African linguistics and sociology at Leipzig University. Since 1997 he has been a member of a research team dealing with Ethiopian languages at Mainz University.Renate Richter, born 1941, studied at the Oriental Faculty of Leningrad University, received her Ph.D. in 1969 (Amharic causative stems) and published her postdoctoral dissertation in 1981 (Tendencies of language development in Ethiopia) at Leipzig University. She worked as an assistant professor for Amharic at Leipzig University from 1982 to 1993 and as a research fellow at Mainz University from 1993 to 1999.

• Contents: Language contact and social network theory – Language contact in urban centres of Ethiopia – Demographic and language data on students, their parents and grandparents – Factors promoting the development of bi- and multilingualism.