The paper explores the position of minority languages in Croatian primary schools
in multilingual communities on the example of the village of Darda, situated in
the Hungarian-Croatian border area. The research is based on a questionnaire developed
by Professor Sture Ureland from the University Mannheim, Germany,
within a broader research project on minority languages in Europe. The questionnaire,
consisting of 43 questions, was conducted on the sample of 53 pupils taking
part in the minority language education programme of the primary school of
Darda, a multilingual community 10 km away from Osijek. The sample includes
primary school children belonging mostly to three national minorities: the Serbian,
the Hungarian and the Romany. In the first part of the paper the author describes
the language policy of the Republic of Croatia with specific reference to
minority languages. The main part is dedicated to the analysis of the results of the
questionnaire concerning the usage of minority languages at school and in everyday
communication by the respondents, as well as their attitudes towards their
mother tongue on one hand and Croatian as the official language on the other. In
the conclusion the author compares the results and, by using the example of multilingual
community of the village of Darda, offers an overview of the position of
minority languages in the Hungarian-Croatian border area. The results will also
indicate how the minority language policy is applied in Croatian primary schools
and how it reflected on the ethnolinguistic vitality of that specific multilingual
community.