Wikipedia:WikiProject Kosovo/Style advice

These guidelines deal with the naming of articles, categories and templates related to Kosovo. Please follow the conventions below. If you disagree with any of the conventions, please discuss in the talk page.

To write and edit Kosovo-related articles, please follow the conventions below. Also, refer to:


 * Manual of Style for general cases;
 * History for notes on the style of history articles;
 * Naming conventions (use English) for general use of English names in articles.

Naming issues in Kosovo: an overview
Kosovo is today inhabited principally by ethnic Albanians (who speak the Albanian language) along with much smaller populations of Serbs (speaking the Serbian language), Turks and other ethnic communities. It was part of the medieval Serbian state before falling to the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. Serbia regained control of it again in 1912 – 1913, but lost effective control following the 1999 Kosovo War. In February 2008, Kosovo's autonomous Albanian-dominated government unilaterally declared independence from Serbia. (See History of Kosovo for more.)

Kosovo and its localities have therefore been referred to by a variety of different names – Serbian, Turkish and Albanian – at various points in its history. In determining which name(s) to use, Wikipedia's naming conventions and the principles of the neutral point of view (NPOV) policy are to be followed. The following guidelines set out conventions derived from Wikipedia's current policies and standards.

Current nomenclature
Places in Kosovo are most often known by either Albanian or Serbian names, and Kosovo itself is known by distinct Serbian and Albanian names. Place names may be:


 * identical between the languages – (A) Prizren → (S) Prizren;
 * broadly similar – (A) Prishtina → (S) Priština;
 * completely different – (A) Ferizaj → (S) Uroševac.

The Albanian names of some places have recently undergone changes, particularly where names derived from Serbian are involved. For instance:


 * (A) Vuçitërn / (S) Vučitrn has been renamed (A) Vushtrria;
 * (A) Obiliq / (S) Obilić has been renamed (A) Kastrioti;
 * (A) Istog / (S) Istok has been renamed (A) Burim;
 * (A) Novobërdë / (S) Novo Brdo has been renamed (A) Artana; and,
 * (A) Kamenica / (S) Kosovska kamenica has been renamed (A) Dardana.

Albanian names may additionally take different forms depending on their grammatical gender and position in a sentence, which affects whether they are written with or without a postpositive definite article, e.g., Prishtina vs Prishtinë, Prizren vs Prizreni. The recommended international usage for Albanian toponyms is to use feminine place names in the definite form and masculine placenames in the indefinite form, i.e., Prishtina rather than Prishtinë, Mitrovica rather than Mitrovicë, Prizren rather than Prizreni, Kaçanik rather than Kaçaniku. It is highly recommended that an up-to-date map or gazetteer should be used to determine which form of an Albanian place name is used.

From 1913, localities in Kosovo were most often known internationally by Serbian (Serbo-Croatian) names, often spelled without diacritics in English-language publications (e.g., Pristina rather than (S) Priština). This prevalence of Serbian names in non-Serbian sources is due to mapping usually being based on Yugoslavian/ Serbian sources, which used the Serbian (Serbo-Croatian) forms of Kosovo placenames. However, more recently published maps and guidebooks do now use Albanian placenames primarily, with Serbian placenames given secondarily (see, e.g., Gizi Map's Kosovo Geographical Map (ISBN 9789630039208) or Bradt's Kosovo guidebook (ISBN 1841621994), both published in 2007).

Wikipedia standards
Wikipedia's approach to dealing with disputed placenames is set out in Naming conflict. The naming conflict guidelines operate alongside the guidelines on general naming conventions, the conventions for geographic names, and those for common names. Bear in mind that the English version of Wikipedia follows prevalent naming conventions in English, which may conflict with those in operation on the non-English Wikipedias. There is no common naming standard across all Wikipedias.

Wikipedia's naming conflict guidelines mandate that articles on self-identifying entities should use the name chosen by the entity in question, or an equivalent English translation. A self-identifying entity is, in this context, a political entity (such as a municipal or regional government) or a public or private organisation.

A name may be controversial due to political disputes over the right of an entity to use the name that it has chosen for itself. Wikipedia does not take any position on whether a self-identifying entity has any right to use a particular name; this encyclopedia merely notes the fact that they do use that name. Wikipedia is descriptive, not prescriptive. We cannot declare what a name should be as this would be a violation of the neutral point of view policy; we can only state how a term is actually used.

The key principles of relevance to the case of Kosovo are as follows:


 * Self-identifying entities such as localities, organisations and people are primarily named according to the name that they give themselves, except where a common anglicised equivalent exists – e.g., "Munich" for München.
 * Inanimate entities such as geographical features are named primarily according to their most common name in English, or if there is no common English name, then the non-English name most commonly used in English-language sources. The modifying noun ("River", "Mount[ains]", "Lake" etc.) given in English – e.g., "Orlické Mountains" for the Czech Orlické hory.

Native names rendered in English-language sources using the same spelling but omitting diacritics, such as "Pristina" for (S) Priština, are not conventionally counted as being anglicised. Properly anglicised names can be distinguished by their having undergone significant modifications to spelling (e.g., "Belgrade" for (S) Beograd).

Geographical naming
The region of Kosovo is predominately known in English as Kosovo, in Albanian as Kosova or Kosovë and in Serbian as Kosovo i Metohija ("Kosovo and Metohija") or "Kosovo" for short. The name "Kosovo" (or the obsolete spellings "Kossovo" and "Cossovo") has predominated in English-language sources for at least 200 years.

The common name Kosovo should therefore be used when referring to the region as a whole.

The capital/ largest city of Kosovo is to be spelled as Pristina as opposed to the Serbian version Priština and the Albanian version Prishtina. Manual of Style (Kosovo-related articles)/Prishtina-Pristina-Priština. This is the de facto, most neutral and most common version in English.

Kosovo note
As common name Kosovo should be used in all Kosovo-related articles, Kosovo note should be also used to avoid disputes on Kosovo status, and to avoid Kosovo/Serbia, Serbia/Kosovo, Serbia (Kosovo), etc., reverts. It should be added next to the first mentioning of the word Kosovo in the text, and next to the word Kosovo in the Infoboxes. The Kosovo note must not be used in a historical context prior to February 2008.

Other Kosovo place names
Geographical features in Kosovo are known by both Albanian and Serbian names. To comply with the requirements of Naming conflict, features located predominately in a particular linguistic area must be termed according to the most common name in English, or if there is no common English name, then the non-English name most commonly used in English-language sources. The modifying noun ("Mount[ains]", "River", "Lake" etc.) must be rendered in English. In practice, this will mean that Serbian geographical names will take precedence (e.g., Ibar River, Šar Mountains).

A number of monuments in Kosovo are associated with specific ethnic groups, particularly in the case of Serbian Orthodox sites. They must be termed consistently with the ethnic group with which they are associated, even if they are located in an area where the language of that group is not dominant. As with geographical features, modifying nouns must be rendered in English. Thus Patriarchate of Peć, rather than (A) Patrikana e Pejës; Gračanica monastery, rather than (A) Manastiri i Graçanicës.

As with municipal names, articles on these topics must start with the predominant local or associated place name followed by the equivalent name in the other language.

Kosovo as a whole
The geographical territory of Kosovo is claimed by two entities with varying degrees of international recognition as independent states. The Kosovo Government has declared independence from Serbia under the name of the Republika e Kosovës, the common English equivalent of which is "Republic of Kosovo" (the government uses "Republic of Kosova"). The Serbian government still regards Kosovo as being an autonomous province of Serbia called Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija.

In English, it is conventional to use the name of a geographical area as a short form for the name of a state or administrative division (e.g., "Britain" for "United Kingdom"). The geographical term "Kosovo" may thus be used as an acceptable short form of both the names "Republic of Kosovo" and "autonomous province of Kosovo-Metohija". In circumstances where a difference exists between the state/province and the geographical region, the contexts should be made clear to the reader.

Kosovo municipalities
Approximately 90% of Kosovo's territory is governed by Albanian-dominated municipalities. A number of Kosovo Serb enclaves exist within this area. Additionally, the region of North Kosovo is overwhelmingly populated by Serbs, with a few small Albanian villages, and it functions largely autonomously from the remainder of the disputed territory. In the area governed by each ethnic group, local governments predominately use placenames in that group's language. For instance, the government of Kosovo's capital identifies the city in English as (A) Prishtina. , while the largest Serb-populated town in North Kosovo identifies itself exclusively as (S) Leposavić.

On the principle that self-identifying entities are named primarily according to the term that they use for themselves, and since anglicised equivalents do not exist for Kosovo place names, local official place names are to be used. In practice this means using Albanian names for Albanian-governed localities and Serbian names for Serbian-governed localities. In each case, articles must start with the predominant local place name followed by the equivalent name in the other language.

Ethnic naming
The Albanian and Serbian inhabitants of Kosovo are called by a number of different names in English. The terms Kosovars and Kosovans are widely used as collective terms. "Kosovars" has, however, most often been used as a synonym for "Kosovo Albanians", though it has frequently also been used to refer to Serbs as well. It is recommended that this term should not be used due to the potential for confusion. The following terms are thus recommended:


 * Kosovans as the collective term for all inhabitants of Kosovo.
 * Kosovo Albanians or Albanian Kosovans for the Albanian inhabitants of Kosovo.
 * Kosovo Serbs or Serbian Kosovans for the Serbian inhabitants of Kosovo.

Other ethnic groups should be termed by their self-identifying names – note, in particular, that the term "Roma" is used for the Romani people, not the oft-used English term "gypsies".