Gorani people

The Gorani (also Gorans, self-designation Goranci, from Serbian and Macedonian гора / gora " mountain " / " mountain") are South Slavs Islamic creed, which are mainly located in the mountainous region of south-western Kosovo on the border with Macedonia and Albania.

Settlement areas

Most Gorani live in the greater community Dragaš of Kosovo and indeed almost exclusively in the southern part. The Gorani are an autochthonous people in this area.

However, went to the end of the war in Kosovo - OSCE reportedly - in their main settlement area, the number of 18,500 ( last official census in 1981 ) to around 10,000 back. There are also some villages in Albania and Macedonia. It is thought that about 180 goranische families in Macedonia live. Gorani also live in Serbia and other parts of the former Yugoslavia, the estimates for Belgrade go of over 5,000 Gorani from. All in all there should be a maximum of about 20,000 Gorani.

Language

The Gorani speak Goranski, a number of Turkish loanwords containing transitional dialect between the torlakischen dialects of Serbian, Bulgarian and the northern dialects of the Macedonian. As a dialect of the language of the Gorani is not codified in writing. As a written language, the Gorani usually operate well below the long term impact of the government of the Serbian authorities, but often also dominate the Macedonian ( Bulgarian ). This means that many Serbs and Macedonians they attribute their ethnicity: from the Serb side they are commonly called Islamized Slavs Serbian origin, by contrast, considers the part of the Macedonians as Macedonian origin. More recently, it was within the goranischen community efforts to use the Bosnian as a written language.

Self-definition and status

The self-confidence as an ethnic minority is rather fragile. In the sixties, many Gorani ethnic group of the Turks counted on. In 1971, the category of ethnic Muslims was created as a separate state people, in the Slavic -speaking Muslims were summarized in Yugoslavia. It included besides the Gorani the Bosniaks, Pomaks and Torbeschen.

The Gorani consider today mostly as an independent ethnic group. In Kosovo Gorani have held the status of a recognized minority and are in Parliament with an MP.

In Vojvodina, the Gorani are counted as a separate ethnic group.