Serbians

Not to be confused with Serbs.

Serbians (Serbian, Bosnian: Србијанци/Srbijanci; Hungarian: Szerbek) typically is used as a demonym of the people of Serbia of any ethnic heritage, be they Serb, Bosniak, Hungarian, or Albanian. However it may be used as reference to ethnic Serbs.

However it could also be used as the translation of Serbian word Srbijanci, especially when distinction is made between the two. In a similar way, adjectives "Serb" and "Serbian" could be used to mean "of Serbs" and "of Serbia", respectively, though they too are used interchangeably.[1]

In the Serbian language, Srbijanci are Serbs from Central Serbia, or broader, from Serbia.[2] Not all Serbians are Serbs, nor all Serbs are Serbians.[3] The term Serbians (Srbijanci) excludes ethnic Serbs who are from neighboring countries, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro or Macedonia. An English speaker might use the word "Serbians" to mean "Serbs". Further confusions issues as in English the word "Serbs" may be used to refer to ethnic Serbs, or to citizens of Serbia regardless of their ethnicity, and going from there, word "Serbians" could be used in the same way.[4]

Vuk Karadžić's Srpski rječnik (Serbian Dictionary) from 1818 had the entry: This edition does not mention such a term, including the 1852 first edition. It was in the 1852 second edition of the Serbian Dictionary that the word was mentioned:

Srbijanac - čovek iz Srbije; srbijanski - koji je iz Srbije.

meaning

Srbijanac - man from Serbia; srbijanski - that which is from Serbia.

A folk song from Central Serbia has in its refrain the words "..jelek, anterija i opanci, po tome se znaju Srbijanci...", meaning "...jelek, anterija, and opanaks – , is how you recognize a Srbijanac...". The song describes the Serbian dress of people from Central Serbia, and the term Srbijanci is used as a literary expression and its definition is uncertain.

The term Srbijanci is not part of the modern Serbian mainstream language as its frequency and usage is minimal. An explanation might be that many Serbs from Serbia would find the term insulting.[5][6][7][8]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Petrovich, Michael B. (1985). "Review of The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics." Slavic Review. 4 (2), 369 – 370.
  2. ↑ Miller, Nick (2008). The Nonconformists: Culture, Politics, and Nationalism in a Serbian Intellectual Circle, 1944-1991. Central European University Press. p. 148.
  3. ↑ Srbi i ostali Srbijanci
  4. ↑ Uzelak, Gordona (1998). "Franjo Tudjman's Nationalist Ideology." East European Quarterly. 31.
  5. ↑ Nikola Živković. ""Vojvodina? Gde je to?"" (in Serbian). Nova srpska politička misao. Retrieved 2012-07-08. Ovim nije kraj naših podela. Pored reč «dođoši», postoji i pojam «prečani» i «Srbijanci». A kako se zovu Hrvati iz Bosne? Hrvatijanci? Ne, ta reč je naravno moja, veštačka, izmišljena. Ali, zašto ta pojava postoji samo kod Srba? Srbi i Srbijanci. Austrougarska je izmislila te podele, a mi Srbi smo ih prihvatili. U tome je problem. Mi prihvatamo jezik neprijatelja. Tuđe olako uzimamo, a odričemo se svoga. Tako smo olako odbacili i ćirilicu.
  6. ↑ Nikola Tanasić (2012-07-20). "O Srbima, Srbijancima i srbijančenju Srba" (in Serbian). Nova srpska politička misao. Retrieved 2012-07-08. O upotrebi pojma „Srbijanac“ [...] Međutim, unutar današnjih granica Srbije, „Srbijanci“ se uglavnom koriste na severu, kako bi se (uglavnom pežorativno i prezrivo) denotirali „gedžovani“, primitivci i sirotinja sa juga koja odudara od „zapadnoevropskih“ manira, običaja i „kulture“ tzv. „Vojvođana“. Očigledno je da ova upotreba, međutim, nastaje kasnije i nema veze sa onim „Srbijancima“ o kojima svedoče Vuk Karadžić i Branko Radičević.
  7. ↑ http://www.standard.rs/zoran-cirjakovic-zasto-je-uvredljiva-rec-srbijanac.html| "Why is Srbijanac offensive word" in Serbian
  8. ↑ http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Srbijanac#Serbo-Croatian

External links