They say Bosniak, the OED ...

[Mark Mandel]

Here are some relevant cites. FWIW, the missing article ("belonging to
__ autochthonous South Slavic people") suggests that the Wiktionary
def. may have been written by a native speaker of a Slavic language.
Wikipedia's Footnote 26 is to the CIA World Factbook, which I think we
can agree is pretty reliable.


OED:
Bosniac
  = BOSNIAN n.
    [also -ak in a quotation]

Bosnian, a. and n.
B. n. A native of Bosnia.



Wiktionary
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Bosniak
1. A person belonging to autochthonous South Slavic people living
mainly in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Sandžak region of Serbia and
Montenegro.
2. A person typically characterized by their tie to the Bosnian
historical region, traditional adherence to Islam, and common culture
and language.



Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosniaks
The Bosniaks or Bosniacs[25] (Bosnian: Bošnjak, pl: Bošnjaci, IPA:
[...]) are a South Slavic people, living mainly in Bosnia and
Herzegovina ("Bosnia") and the Sandžak region of Serbia and
Montenegro, with a smaller autochthonous population also present in
Croatia, Kosovo and the Republic of Macedonia. Bosniaks are typically
characterized by their tie to the Bosnian historical region,
traditional adherence to Islam, and common culture and language.

In the English-speaking world, Bosniaks are most commonly known as
Bosnian Muslims, although Bosniaks make up 48% of the population while
only 40% of the population (of B&H) is Muslim.[26] The term
"Bosnians", also used interchangeably, can also be used to denote all
inhabitants of Bosnia regardless of ethnic origin (i.e. not only
Bosniaks, but also Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Croats or any other group in
the country).[27]



CIA World Factbook
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bk.html#People
Bosniak 48%, Serb 37.1%, Croat 14.3%, other 0.6% (2000)
note: Bosniak has replaced Muslim as an ethnic term in part to avoid
confusion with the religious term Muslim - an adherent of Islam



m a m


On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 4:25 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I agree that the OED ought to have Bosniak. But transliteration is
> ultimately a matter of taste. BTW, isn't *any* native of a Bosniak and
> not a Muslim native? If not, what are the Catholics and the Orthodox
> called? Croats and Serbs? That's not unreasonable, I guess.
>
> -Wilson
>
> On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 12:31 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> > At 10/4/2008 11:55 PM, Doug_Harris wrote:
> >>A NYT op-ed piece by Charles M. Blow (10/3) was footnoted:
> >>
> >>Correction: October 4, 2008
> >>
> >>An earlier version of this column misspelled an ethnic term for Muslims in
> >>Bosnia and Herzegovina, and incorrectly claimed that Senator Joseph R. Biden
> >>Jr. had made a mistake in using it. The correct spelling is Bosniak, not
> >>Bosniac, and Mr. Biden's usage was correct.
> >
> > Unfortunately, Bosniak is not in the OED -- but Bosniac (n.) and
> > Bosnian (a. and n.) both are.
> >
> > Joel

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