When the Czech language is mentioned nowadavs, its speakers are usually located in today's Czech Republic. Nevertheless, in its history the Czech ethnic population also spread to other parts of the world. In various waves of exile and emigration, particularly over the last two hundred years, the Czechs settled in many foreign countries or became citizens of other states due to border changes forming new communities there and, naturally, taking the most precious part of their heritage, i.e. the Czech language, with them. ne geographical shifts, one of the consequences of which was the isolation from the majority ethnic population, affected each of the Czech minority groups in many different ways. Yet, in their subsequent development we may trace recurring patterns and find some common characteristic features in the process of the transformation of the groups' ethnic consciousness, language and way of life. With a degree of simplification the following typology of models can be outlined: 1. ethnic consciousness, the language and the traditional way of life almost unchanged, ties to the former homeland retained, e.g. the Czechs in Volhynia; 2. language and the way of life relatively unchanged, ethnic consciousness and links with the former homeland weakened, e.g. in Croatia; 3. despite the loss of the language and the full integration into the new majority population the group retains awareness of its origin, e.g. in the USA or Vienna; 4. the loss of all sense of the origin while, curiously, keeping some elements of the language and culture, e.g. the Klodzko region.
