Krajina


Krajina is a Slavic toponym, meaning 'frontier' or 'march'. The term is related with kraj or krai, originally meaning "edge" and today denoting a region or province, usually distant from the metropole.

Etymology

The Serbo-Croatian word krajina derives from Proto-Slavic *krajina, derived from *krajь, meaning "edge", related to *krojiti, "to cut"; the original meaning of krajina thus seems to have been "place at an edge, fringe, borderland", as reflected in the meanings of Church Slavonic краина, kraina, and Old East Slavic окраина, okraina.
In some South Slavic languages, including Serbo-Croatian and Slovene, the word krajina or its cognate still refers primarily to a border, :wikt:fringe|fringe, or borderland of a country, and secondarily to a region, area, or landscape. The word kraj can today mean an end or extremity, or region or area. Archaically extrapolated, it could mean "army" or "war"; this meaning developed from the earlier meaning of "borderland" in a manner analogous to the French word campagne. The term is equal to German Mark and French marche.
In other Slavic languages, the term has other meanings, either a territorial name or word with meaning "a land, landscape". In Slovenian, the word means both "landscape" and march.

Geographical regions

Subdivisions of Austria-Hungary:
Political units formed by rebel Serbs at the beginning of the Croatian War of Independence :
Political unit formed by Serbs in the prelude of the Bosnian War :
Where the term "Serbian Krajina" or "Krajina" alone is used, it most often refers to the former Republic of Serbian Krajina.
In Russia:
In Slovakia:
In Czech Republic:
In Ukraine: