摘要：Summary Great migrations of the Croatian people to the Latin American country of Chile took place at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. The causes of migrations were numerous but they were mostly spurred by hunger and poverty. The first immigrants were Dalmatians from the island of Brač and Hvar or the coastal village of Mimice near Omiš. Interesting and inexhaustible themes of new life on a distant continent, integration, coexistence and preservation of ethnic and cultural identity have long been subjects of historical, sociological, geographical and linguistic research. This paper will present an analysis of the current state of the Croatian language in Chile, that is the degree to which and the ways it has been preserved in the Chilean cities of Punta Arenas, Porvenir, Iquiqe, Antofagasta, Santiago and Concepcion. These cities and the surrounding areas are inhabited by a large number of descendants of Croatian immigrants and the analysis of schools, institutions and centers that offer courses and activities involving partial use of the Croatian language will provide a clear picture of the existence of the Croatian language in the Spanish- speaking areas. In addition, this will also raise a question of whether and how to stop, or at least slown down the process of extinction of the Croatian language, and thereby identity, in the largest Croatian immigrant community in the Southern Hemisphere.
