INSTITUCIONALNA PODRŠKA U ODRŽAVANJU ČEŠKOG KAO MANJINSKOG JEZIKA U SRBIJI

Problems faced by ethnolinguistic minority communities are not solely related to language assimila- tion. Often, a great challenge in maintaining an ethnolinguistic minority community in any environment also involves cultural blending with the majority population through everyday contact and coexistence in the same territory. Contact linguistics offers tools to understand the changes occurring in languages that persist despite continuous contact with the ‘more powerful’ languages of the surrounding majority population. However, a characteristic of contact linguistics is that linguistic changes in languages can be better understood if extralinguistic factors are also considered during the study. In this paper, we have chosen to examine the ways in which different organizations endeavor to maintain the Czech language used by members of the Czech national minority in Serbia. We will mention the laws by which the Republic of Serbia ensures and protects the rights of members of national minorities, and pay special attention to the associations Češka beseda Beograd, Češka beseda Novi Sad, Česi Srbije, Češka beseda Kruščica, Češka beseda Vršac, and Česi Šumadije, which tirelessly strive to prevent the Czech spirit from disappearing among Serbian Czechs. We will attempt to conclude why it is necessary to continue further studies of this community and the Czech language used by its members, and whether there are steps that could be taken to forestall the disappearance of this specific Czech variety in the territory of the Republic of Serbia.