Contexts in the Use of Terminology Šijak at South Slavs’ in the 18th and 19th Century

Abstract

The term Šijak was used in the 18th and 19th century among Serbs, as well as Croats, as a nickname for ethnically or linguistically related or identical, more or less distanced communities, which differed at some points from the group that called them Šijaks. The nickname had been used among the Orthodox and Catholic Christians in Slavonia to mark the inhabitants of the surroundings of Slavonian Požega regardless of their religion, but also the people who used ikavski speech, while in Bačka and Srem, it signified those who used jekavski speech. In Western Serbia, it was used by the Herzegovian immigrants to mark the natives of ekavski speech, but also the inhabitants of the lowland agricultural villages. As a signifier of the inhabitants of the lowland agricultural villages, it was as well used in Eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina. In Montenegro, Herzegovina, Old Herzegovina, Old Serbia, and South Morava Valley, it was used since the times of the First Serbian Uprising by the Muslims and Orthodox Christians as a name for Serbia residents. They were also in use among the Muslims in Old Serbia as a pejorative for Muslims from Bosnia and Herzegovina. The use of the nickname as a pejorative which the Catholics called Orthodox Christians in Bosnia remains questionable.