Bosnia and Bosnians
Bosnia (region)
Bosnia (Bosnian: Bosna; Serbian: Босна, pronounced [bɔ̂sna]) is an eponymous region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It encompasses roughly 80% of the country in the north, while the other eponymous region, the southern part, is Herzegovina. Bosnia is an informal use for the whole country.
The two regions have formed a geopolitical entity since medieval times, and the name "Bosnia" commonly occurs in historical and geopolitical senses as generally referring to both regions (Bosnia and Herzegovina). The official use of the name including both regions started only in the late period of Ottoman-rule.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnia_(region)
Bosnians
Bosnians (Bosnian: Bosanci, Croatian: Bosanci, Serbian: Босанци) are people who reside in, or descend from, Bosnia.
By the modern state definition, a Bosnian can be anyone who holds citizenship of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina as largely synonymous with the all-encompassing national demonym Bosnians and Herzegovinians. This includes, but is not limited to, members of the constituent ethnic groups of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks, Bosnian Serbs and Bosnian Croats. Those who reside in the smaller geographical region of Herzegovina may thus prefer to stress themselves as Herzegovinians in a localized, regional sense.
Ethnic minorities such as Jews, Roma, Albanians, Montenegrins and others may consider Bosnian to be attached to their ethnicity (e.g. Bosnian Jews).
In addition, there is a sizable population in Bosnia and Herzegovina who believe that Bosnians are a people that constitute a distinct collective cultural identity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnians
Bosnian language
Bosnian (bosanski / босански [bɔ̌sanskiː]) is a standardized register of the Serbo-Croatian language, a South Slavic language,[3][4][5] used by Bosniaks. Bosnian is one of the three official languages of Bosnia and Herzegovina,[6] along with Croatian and Serbian.
Standard Bosnian is based on the most widespread dialect of Serbo-Croatian, Shtokavian, more specifically on Eastern Herzegovinian, which is also the basis of Standard Croatian, Serbian, and Montenegrin. Until the dissolution of SFR Yugoslavia, they were treated as a unitary Serbo-Croatian language, and that term is still used in English to subsume the common base (vocabulary, grammar and syntax) of what are today officially four national standards, although the term is no longer used by native speakers.
The Bosnian standard uses both Latin and Cyrillic alphabets.[Note 1] Bosnian is notable amongst the varieties of Serbo-Croatian for having an eclectic assortment of Arabic, Turkish and Persian loanwords, largely due to the language's interaction with those cultures through Islamic ties.[7][8][9] This is historically corroborated by the introduction and use of Arebica (Matufovica) as a successor script for the Bosnian language, replacing Bosnian Cyrillic (Bosančica) upon the introduction of Islam; first amongst the elite, then amongst the public.[10] The Bosnian language also contains a number of Germanisms not often heard in Croatian or Serbian that have been in use since the Austro-Hungarian Empire.[11]
The first official dictionary in the Bosnian language, authored by Muhamed Hevaji Uskufi, was printed in the early 1630s,[12] while the first dictionary in Serbian was printed only in the mid-19th century.[13] Written evidence and records point to the Bosnian language being the official language of the country since at least the Kingdom of Bosnia, as further corroborated by the declaration of the Charter of Ban Kulin, one of the oldest written state documents in the Balkans and one of the oldest to be written in Bosančica.[14][15]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_language
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina (i/ˈbɒzniə ənd hɛərtsəɡɵˈviːnə/; Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian Bosna i Hercegovina, pronounced [bôsna i xěrt͡seɡoʋina]; Cyrillic script: Боснa и Херцеговина), sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina, abbreviated BiH, and in short often known informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeastern Europe located on the Balkan Peninsula. Sarajevo is the capital and largest city. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for 20 kilometres (12 miles) of coastline on the Adriatic Sea surrounding the city of Neum. In the central and eastern interior of the country the geography is mountainous, in the northwest it is moderately hilly, and the northeast is predominantly flatland. The inland is a geographically larger region and has a moderate continental climate, bookended by hot summers and cold and snowy winters. The southern tip of the country has a Mediterranean climate and plain topography.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnia_and_Herzegovina
Bosnian Proverbs
Bird
¶ Latin: Bolje vrabac u ruci, nego golub na grani.
Cyrillic: Боље врабац у руци, него голуб на грани.
Translation: A sparrow in the hand is better than a pigeon on the branch.
Time
¶ Latin: Gvožđe se kuje dok je vruće. - Cyrillic: Гвожђе се кује док је вруће.
Translation: Iron is worked when it's still hot.
English equivalent: Strike the iron while its hot.
[Matković, umjetnosti, knijiževnost (1980). Forum. p. 391.]
References
Bosnian language
[1]^ "Accredited Language Services: An Outline of Bosnian Language History". Accredited Language Services. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
[2]^ Alexander 2006, pp. 1-2.
[3]^ David Dalby, Linguasphere (1999/2000, Linguasphere Observatory), pg. 445, 53-AAA-g, "Srpski+Hrvatski, Serbo-Croatian".
[4]^ Benjamin V. Fortson, IV, Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction, 2nd ed. (2010, Blackwell), pg. 431, "Because of their mutual intelligibility, Serbian, Croatian, and Bosnian are usually thought of as constituting one language called Serbo-Croatian."
[5]^ Václav Blažek, "On the Internal Classification of Indo-European Languages: Survey" retrieved 20 Oct 2010, pp. 15-16.
[6]^ See Art. 6 of the Constitution of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, available at the official website of Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina
[7]^ Algar, Hamid (2 July 1994). Persian Literature in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Oxford: Journal of Islamic Studies (Oxford). pp. 254–68.
[8]^ Balić, Smail (1978). Die Kultur der Bosniaken, Supplement I: Inventar des bosnischen literarischen Erbes in orientalischen Sprachen. Vienna: Adolf Holzhausens, Vienna. p. 111.
[9]^ Balić, Smail (1992). Das unbekannte Bosnien: Europas Brücke zur islamischen Welt. Cologne, Weimar and Vienna: Bohlau. p. 526.
[10]^ Dobraća, Kasim (1963). Katalog Arapskih, Turskih i Perzijskih Rukopisa (Catalogue of the Arabic, Turkish and Persian Manuscripts in the Gazihusrevbegova Library, Sarajevo). Sarajevo.
[11]^ ANDLER, CH (1915). Pan-Germanism: Its plans for German expansion in the World. Paris: Librairie Armande Colin. p. App. I, II - pp. 69–71.
[12]^ Sarajevo archiv
[13]^ "Gammel ordbok i ny drakt" (in Norwegian). University of Oslo. 2012-04-10.
[14]^ Čišić, Husein. Razvitak i postanak grada Mostara. Štamparija Mostar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnia_(region)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnians
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosnian_language
