Czech as a Heritage Language and the Need for Its Systematic State Support

In line with the language policy of the European Union, considerable attention is now also being paid to the various circumstances of the linguistic use of the varieties of the respective national languages outside their historical borders. In addition to the term “Czech language of expatriates”, the term “heritage language” is also used to describe the forms of the Czech national language used by expatriate Czech. It is usually acquired in the form in which it was and is used by the speaker's language models, i.e., mainly grandparents and parents, siblings, and other members of the Czech community. The heritage language is often the mother tongue of its users. It is a non-literary form of Czech influenced to some extent by the local majority dominant language, which is used by members of different generations of expatriates mainly in spoken form in informal communication, e.g., between family members or within the Czech community. We believe that Czech as a heritage language is an important integral part of the Czech national language. It is clear from important materials and documents (not only) of the EU that the speakers in question can, from a certain point of view, demand education in the prestigious variety of the Czech national language, i.e., in standard Czech. Nevertheless, there are some gaps and missed opportunities in this respect. To achieve the proper acquisition of standard Czech and the set goals, it is necessary to develop a specific methodology for teaching these speakers, to create appropriate institutional conditions and facilities, as well as to develop suitable teaching materials that would consider and respect the specifics of the regional speakers at issue. Otherwise, there will be an inevitable gradual loss of their abilities and skills in Czech, which may have considerable negative social consequences. This is closely related to the aims and focus of this text. This paper is primarily theoretical rather than empirical and has two main objectives: to provide information about Czech as a heritage language, to implicitly encourage the expert community to reflect on the question whether the linguistic communities and governments of different countries are aware of the linguistic, social, and cultural values that countries gain from maintaining heritage languages.