Bosnia (region)
Bosnia (/Босна; ) is the northern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, encompassing roughly 81% of the country; the other eponymous region, the southern part, is Herzegovina. "Bosnia" is an informal term for the whole country.
Name of Bosnia
From the name of Bosnia, various local terms (demonyms) have been derived designating its population. The South Slavic endonym "Bošnjani" (or "Бошњани" in Cyrillic script) was used during the 14th and 15th century in order to denote local population of the Banate of Bosnia and its successor, the Kingdom of Bosnia. During the Ottoman period various Turkish-language variations of the root "Bosna" were used as demonyms (such as ). Terms like "Bosniacs" or "Bosniaks" () and "Bosnians" () were also used as common demonyms, denoting all inhabitants of Bosnia, regardless of their ethnicity or religion. By the end of the 20th century, the term "Bosniaks" was selected, and adopted as an ethnonym by the political leadership of Bosnian Muslims, who are since then known as ethnic Bosniaks.