Editing Carantanians (section)

{{Short description|Slavic people of the Early Middle Ages}}
{{No footnotes|date=April 2009}}
[[File:Knežji Kamen.jpg|thumb|Carantanian Prince sitting on the Prince's Stone]]
'''Carantanians''' ({{langx|la|Quarantani}}, {{langx|sl|Karantanci}}) were a [[Slavs|Slavic]] people of the [[Early Middle Ages]] (Latin: {{lang|la|Sclavi qui dicuntur Quarantani}}, or "Slavs called Carantanians"), living in the principality of [[Carantania]], later known as [[Carinthia]], which covered present-day southern [[Austria]] and parts of [[Slovenia]]. They are considered ancestors of modern [[Slovenes]], particularly [[Carinthian Slovenes]].

In the [[High Middle Ages]], the term Carantanians and Carinthians were used interchangeably and denoted both the inhabitants of the bilingual Slavic-German [[Duchy of Carinthia]], as well as [[South Slavs]] living within the borders of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] (that is, the ancestors of present-day Slovenes and [[Istria]]n [[Croats]]).<ref>[[Milko Kos]], Zgodovina Slovencev, Vol I (Ljubljana, 1933): 171-72.</ref>