Bošnjani
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Bošnjani (sing. Bošnjanin; Latin: Bosniensis) was the local Slavic name for inhabitants of Bosnia during the Middle Ages.
It appeared in a number of documents from the period, in most cases coupled with the word Good ("Dobri"). Debate on the exact nature of the term is inconclusive. Some historians believe that it indicates a unique ethnicity while others believe that it indicates a geographical identity, rather than an ethnic. Today the name is considered archaic, and is used only in the correct historical context.
The records of the term date to the 12th century in the Medieval Bosnian kingdom. Ban Kulin (1163–1204) was a notable Ban of Bosnia who ruled from 1180 to 1204, but as of the 12th century, it goes on becoming a established kingdom and expanding its broders.
The term Bošnjani emerges, implying the ethnogenesis of a new South Slavic tribe, whose ethnic development is obviously significantly formed by the heretic Bosnian Church.
Serb- references often claim Bosnjani to be a ethnic term in domestic documentary sources and are either early self-referrals, or the description of the Kotromanićs' crown (the Bosnian king who wore the crown of Bosnia and Serbia). This is due to a claimed historical event: Tvrtkos crowning as the King of Bosnia and Serbia in Miliseva (other soruces claim this crowning took place in Visoko) after his conquest of the Dukljan land from Serbia, and secondly after also taking over crown as the king of Serbia after Knez Lazar's death in the Kosovo battle. The new specific usage is further supportive of the ethnic origin of the Bošnjani and their theoretical constitution as a ethno-national group.
During the Ottoman era the preferred term for an inhabitant of Bosnia came to be Bošnjak (see also Bosniak and Bosniaks), with the suffix "-iak" replacing the traditional "-anin". During the Austro-Hungarian era the term Bošnjak was also preferred until the beginning of the 20th century. The situation changed again in the 20th century, as Bosanac (see also Bosnian and Bosnians) came to be the preferred term. Following their national awakening and rebirth in the early 1990s, Bosniaks re-established the (by then) archaic term Bošnjaci (Bosniaks) for their nation based on the word's historical ethno-geographic connotations.
