Kosova

Kosova is the Albanian spelling for the southern Serbian province of Kosovo and Metohia. Albanians tend to use "Kosova" exclusively in preference to the Serbian name, which many of them reject as a symbol of Serbian dominance over the ethnic Albanian majority in the province.

Some Albanian researchers claim that the name "Kosovo" is a Serbian form of an old Albanian placename meaning "high plain". However, this is not a widely accepted theory: it is generally believed that the name derives from the Slavic word kos (or "blackbird"). It is a widely used placename in Slav countries, used for a number of localities in Belarus, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia and Russia. The Albanian form "Kosova" would thus be an Albanian version of a Slavic placename.

See also

• Kosovo and Metohia
• Albania
• Serbia