Abstract
The Czech minority has lived in the territory of today's Croatia for more than two hundred years, and yet it is still vital and resists assimilation. The questions therefore arise, what distinguishes this minority from other minorities? What caused the fact that, even after such a long time, its members did not assimilate with the majority population, and what is currently the driving force in the effort "not to be assimilated" by the environment in which the compatriots live? Given that language is often referred to as one of the basic features of an individual's and a group's identity, how important is the Czech language for compatriots in their perception of their own identity? Do they ever think about their life with two or more languages, the advantages and disadvantages of living in a multilingual environment? On what basis do they decide which of the languages to use in a given situation? And what are their attitudes towards the languages they speak?
The book introduces readers to the Czech minority in Croatia in basic aspects: history from its immigration and the establishment of the first associations and schools to today's organization of the minority and its position in Croatian laws. A separate chapter deals with expatriate Czech and language management in the speech of Croatian expatriates. The second part of the book attempts to find answers to the above-mentioned questions based on field research of language biographies and thus contribute to the knowledge of the language behavior of members of the Czech minority living in Croatia. It presents linguistic biographies of expatriate families, focuses on language processes that take place in expatriate families, as well as factors that contribute to the persistence of the minority and the preservation of the minority language.