They come from oldBosnia, which is todayBosnia and Herzegovina, though many of them are from the otherBalkan populations, especiallySerbia,Montenegro andCroatia. They come from medieval Bosnians orBošnjani,Slavic that lived in what was then Bosnia.[4] Medieval Bosniaks or Bosnians, called theDobri bošnjani, "Good Bosnians") practiced different religions but they all spoke the Bosnian language.
TheOxford English Dictionary says theethnonymBosniak was first used in English by theBritishdiplomat andhistorianPaul Rycaut in 1680. He spelled itBosnack to sound like the post-classical LatinBosniacus (possibly earlier than 1682), theFrench wordBosniaque (1695 or earlier) or the German wordBosniak (1737 or earlier).[5] An ethnonym is a name of a group of people. The 1836 version ofPenny Cyclopaedia V. 231/1 uses the modern spelling:
The inhabitants of Bosnia are composed of Bosniaks, a race of Sclavonian origin.[6]
All Slavic languages use thesuffix-ak formasculinenouns. For example, people from the ethnic group inPoland can be calledPolak and people fromSlovakiaSlovaks (Slovák). Consequently, "Bosniak" is logic equivalent to its non-ethnic counterpart "Bosnian," which came to English from Middle French asBosnien): a native of Bosnia.[7]
English speakers usually sayBosnian Muslim to refer to Bosniaks, but this is not completely true because not all Bosniaks are Muslim. Partly because of this, ever since the countryYugoslavia broke up, people have started to sayBosniak instead ofMuslim as an official way to talk about them while avoidingconfusion.[8] They also sayBosnians, but this word can mean anyone from Bosnia or Herzegovina, not just members of the Bosniak ethnic group.[source?]
Today, Bosniaks are mostlyBosnian-speaking and write in theLatin script orCyrillic script. Most modern Bosniaks areMuslim, while the remainder are eitheragnostics oratheists. Most Bosniaks identify themselves as Sunni Muslims.They have bothEuropean and Islamic heritage[clarification needed]. Both within theBalkans region and throughout the world, Bosniaks are often noted for their unique culture, which has been influenced by both eastern and western civilizations and schools of thought over the course of their history.[source?]
Donia, Robert J. (2000)."The New Bosniak History".Nationalities Papers.28 (2).Cambridge University Press. RetrievedDecember 11, 2024.Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
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