Editing Hunnic language

{{Short description|Extinct unclassified language of the Huns}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Hunnic
| region           = From [[Eurasian steppe]] into [[Europe]]
| extinct          = after 469
| familycolor      = Unclassified
| family           = [[Unclassified languages|unclassified]]
| iso3             = xhc
| linglist         = xhc
| glotto           = none
| ethnicity        = [[Huns]]
| map              = Huns450.png
| mapcaption       = The extent of the Huns, and a rough map of the extent of the Hunnic language
| states           = [[Huns#Unified Empire under Attila|Hunnic Empire]]
}}

The '''Hunnic language''', or '''Hunnish''', was the language spoken by [[Huns]] in the [[Huns#Unified Empire under Attila|Hunnic Empire]], a heterogeneous, multi-ethnic tribal confederation which invaded Eastern and Central Europe, and ruled most of [[Pannonian Basin|Pannonian]] Central Europe, during the 4th and 5th centuries CE. A variety of languages were spoken within the Hun Empire.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=377}} A contemporary report by [[Priscus]] has that Hunnish was spoken alongside [[Gothic language|Gothic]] and the languages of other tribes subjugated by the Huns.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=382}}

As no inscriptions or whole sentences in the Hunnic language have been preserved, the attested corpus is very limited, consisting almost entirely of [[proper name]]s in Greek and Latin sources.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=376}}

There is no consensus on the classification of the Hunnish language,{{sfn|Ball|2021|p=170}} but due to the origin of these proper names it has been compared with [[Turkic languages|Turkic]],{{sfn|Pronk-Tiethoff|2013|p=58}}{{sfn|Kim|2013|p=30}} [[Mongolic languages|Mongolic]], [[Iranian languages|Iranian]],{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=390–391}} and [[Yeniseian languages]],<ref>Vajda, Edward J. (2013). Yeniseian Peoples and Languages: A History of Yeniseian Studies with an Annotated Bibliography and a Source Guide. Oxford/New York: Routledge.</ref> and with various [[Indo-European languages]].{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|pp=424–426}} Other scholars consider the available evidence inconclusive and the Hunnish language therefore unclassifiable.{{sfnm|1a1=Doerfer|1y=1973|1p=50|2a1=Golden|2y=1992|2pp=88-89|3a1=Sinor|3y=1997|3p=336|4a1=Róna-Tas|4y=1999|4p=208}}

==Corpus==
Contemporary observers of the European Huns, such as [[Priscus]] and the 6th century historian [[Jordanes]], preserved three words of the language of the Huns: {{quote|In the villages we were supplied with food – millet instead of corn – and ''[[Hunnic cuisine#Medos|medos]]'' as the natives call it. The attendants who followed us received millet and a drink of barley, which the barbarians call ''[[Hunnic cuisine#Kamos|kamos]]''.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=424}}{{sfn|Pronk-Tiethoff|2013|p=58}}}} {{quote|When the Huns had mourned him [Attila] with such lamentations, a ''strava'', as they call it, was celebrated over his tomb with great revelling.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=425}}}}

The words {{lang|xhc|medos}}, a beverage akin to [[mead]], {{lang|xhc|kamos}}, a [[barley]] drink, and {{lang|xhc|strava}}, a [[funeral]] feast, are of [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] origin,{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|pp=424–426}} possibly Slavic, Germanic or Iranian.{{sfn|Pronk-Tiethoff|2013|p=58}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Schenker |first=Alexander M. |author-link=Alexander M. Schenker |date=1995 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0lzGQgAACAAJ |title=The Dawn of Slavic: an introduction to Slavic philology |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |pages=6 |isbn=9780520015968 |access-date=2015-11-22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151123083748/https://books.google.hr/books?id=0lzGQgAACAAJ |archive-date=2015-11-23 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Vékony |first=Gábor |author-link=Gábor Vékony |date=2000 |title=Dacians, Romans, Romanians |url=https://archive.org/details/daciansromansrom0000veko |url-access=registration |publisher=[[Matthias Corvinus]] |pages=[https://archive.org/details/daciansromansrom0000veko/page/236 236] |isbn=9781882785131 |access-date=2020-03-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924031853/http://www.hungarian-history.hu/lib/chk/ |archive-date=2015-09-24 |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Maenchen-Helfen]] argued that ''strava'' may have come from an informant who spoke Slavic.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=425}}

All other information on the Hunnic language is contained in the form of personal and tribal names.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=376}}

==Possible affiliations==
Many of the waves of [[nomad]]ic peoples who swept into Eastern Europe, are known to have spoken languages from a variety of families. Several proposals for the affinities of Hunnic have been made, however there is no consensus.{{sfn|Ball|2021|p=170}}

===Unclassifiable===
Given the small corpus, a number of scholars hold the Hunnic language to be unclassifiable until further evidence, if any, is discovered.{{sfn|Doerfer|1973|p=50}}{{sfn|Golden|2006|pp=136–137}}{{sfn|Sinor|1990|pp=201–202}}{{sfn|Heather|2005|p=148}}{{sfn|Heather|2010|p=209}} [[András Róna-Tas]] notes that "the very scant sources of information are often mutually contradictory."{{sfn|Róna-Tas|1999|p=208}}

===Turkic or Altaic ''sprachbund''===
A number of historians and linguists including [[Karl Heinrich Menges]], and [[Omeljan Pritsak]] feel that the proper names only allow the Hunnic language to be positioned in relationship to the [[Altaic languages|Altaic language group]], which is itself a widely discredited language family.{{sfn|Menges|1995|p=17}} Although Menges was reserved towards the language evidence, his view of the Huns was that "there are [[Ethnology|ethnological]] reasons for considering them Turkic or close to the Turks".{{sfn|Menges|1995|p=17}} As further possibilities, Menges suggests that the Huns could have spoken a [[Mongolian languages|Mongolian]] or [[Tungusic languages|Tungusic language]], or possibly a language between Mongolian and Turkic.{{sfn|Menges|1995|p=17}} Pritsak analyzed 33 surviving Hunnic personal names and concluded: "It was not a Turkic language, but one between Turkic and [[Mongolian language|Mongolian]], probably closer to the former than the latter. The language had strong ties to [[Bulgar language]] and to modern [[Chuvash language|Chuvash]], but also had some important connections, especially lexical and morphological, to [[Ottoman Turkish language|Ottoman Turkish]] and [[Yakut language|Yakut]]".{{sfn|Pritsak|1982|p=470}}

According to Savelyev-Jeong (2020), the "traditional and prevailing view is [...] that the Xiongnu and/or the Huns were Turkic or at least Altaic" speakers.{{sfn|Savelyev|Jeong|2020}} [[Otto Maenchen-Helfen]] argues that many tribal and proper names among the Huns appear to have originated in Turkic languages, indicating that the language was Turkic.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=392–411}} [[Hyun Jin Kim]] similarly concluded that it "seems highly likely then from the names that we do know, most of which seem to be Turkic, that the Hunnic elite was predominantly Turkic-speaking".{{sfn|Kim|2013|p=30}} Denis Sinor, while skeptical of our ability to classify Hunnic as a whole, states that part of the Hunnish elite likely spoke Turkic, though he notes that some Hunnic names cannot be Turkic in origin.{{sfn|Sinor|1990|p=202}} The historian Peter Heather, while he supported the Turkic hypothesis as the "best guess" in 1995,{{sfn|Heather|1995|p=5}} has since voiced skepticism,{{sfn|Heather|2005|p=148}} in 2010 saying that "the truth is that we don't know what language the Huns spoke, and probably never will".{{sfn|Heather|2010|p=209}} Savelyev and Jeong similarly note that "the majority of the previously proposed Turkic etymologies for the Hunnic names are far from unambiguous, so no firm conclusion can be drawn from this type of data."{{sfn|Savelyev|Jeong|2020}}

===Yeniseian===
Some scholars – most notably [[Lajos Ligeti]] (1950/51) and [[Edwin G. Pulleyblank]] (1962) – have claimed that languages of Siberia, especially [[Ket language|Ket]] – a member of the [[Yeniseian]] language family – may have been a major source (or perhaps even the linguistic core) of the Xiongnu or Hunnic languages.<ref>E. G. Pulleyblank, "The consonontal system of old Chinese" [Pt 1], ''Asia Major'', vol. IX (1962), pp. 1–2.</ref>{{sfn|Vajda|2013|pp=4, 14, 48, 103–6, 108–9, 130–1, 135–6, 182, 204, 263, 286, 310}} First proposed by Edwin G. Pulleyblank, the theory that the Xiongnu language belonged to the Yeniseian languages was reinforced by the discovery of the Kot and Pumpokol word lists, which [[Alexander Vovin]] used to create a more accurate reconstruction.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Vovin|first=Alexander|date=2000|title=Did the Xiong-nu Speak a Yeniseian Language?|journal=Central Asiatic Journal|volume=44|issue=1|pages=87–104}}</ref> Hyun Jin Kim in 2013 proposed that the Huns experienced a language flip like the [[Chagatai Khanate]], switching from Yeniseian to [[Oghur languages|Oghuric Turkic]] after absorbing the [[Dingling]] or [[Tiele people|Tiele]] peoples.{{sfn|Kim|2013|pp=20–30}}

Vajda (et al. 2013) proposed that the ruling elite of the Huns spoke a [[Yeniseian languages|Yeniseian language]] and influenced other languages in the region.<ref>Vajda, Edward J. (2013). Yeniseian Peoples and Languages: A History of Yeniseian Studies with an Annotated Bibliography and a Source Guide. Oxford/New York: Routledge.</ref> The [[Yeniseian people]] were likely assimilated later by Turkic and Mongolic groups.

Alexander Savelyev and Choongwon Jeong criticize the Yeniseian proposal by Pulleyblank and note that the more convincing Yeniseian words may be shared cultural vocabulary that was non-native to both the Xiongnu and the Yeniseians.{{sfn|Savelyev|Jeong|2020}}

===Indo-European===
All three words described as "Hunnic" by ancient sources appear to be Indo-European.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|pp=424–426}}

A number of scholars suggest that a Germanic language, possibly [[Gothic language|Gothic]], may have coexisted with another Hunnic language as the ''[[lingua franca]]'' of the Hunnic Empire.{{sfn|Wolfram|1990|p=254}}{{sfn|Wolfram|1997|p=142}}{{sfn|Heather|2010|p=329}} Maenchen-Helfen suggests that the words ''medos'' and ''kamos'' could possibly be of Germanic origin.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|pp=424–426}} He argues that ''Attila'', ''Bleda'', ''Laudaricus'', ''Onegesius'', ''Ragnaris'', and ''Ruga'' are Germanic,{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|pp=386–389}} while Heather also includes the names ''[[Scottas]]'' and ''[[Berichus]]''.{{sfn|Heather|2005|p=329}} Kim questions the Germanic etymologies of ''Ruga'', ''Attila'', and ''Bleda'', arguing that there are "more probable Turkic etymologies."{{sfn|Kim|2013|p=30}} Elsewhere, he argues that the Germanicization of Hunnic names may have been a conscious policy of the Hunnic elite in the Western part of the Empire.{{sfn|Kim|2015|p=111}}

Maenchen-Helfen also classified some names as having roots in [[Iranian languages|Iranian]].{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=390–391}} Christopher Atwood has argued, as one explanation for his proposed etymology of the name ''Hun'' that, "their state or confederation must be seen as the result of [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]]/[[Bactrian language|Baktrian]] [Iranian-speaking] leadership and organization".{{sfn|Atwood|2012|p=47}} Subjects of the Huns included Iranian-speaking [[Alans]] and [[Sarmatians]],{{sfn|Heather|2005|pp=146–167}} Maenchen-Helfen argues that the Iranian names were likely borrowed from the Persians and finds none prior to the 5th century; he takes this to mean that the Alans had little influence inside of Attila's empire.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=443}} Kim, however, argues for a considerable presence of Iranian-speakers among the Huns.{{sfn|Kim|2015|p=4, 8}}

The word ''strava'' has been argued to be of [[Slavic languages|Slavic]] origin and to show a presence of Slavic speakers among the Huns. Peter Heather, however, argues that this word "is certainly a very slender peg upon which to hang the claim that otherwise undocumented Slavs played a major role in Attila's empire".{{sfn|Heather|2010|p=394}} In the 19th century, some Russian scholars argued that the Huns as a whole had spoken a Slavic language.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1945|pp=223}}

===Uralic===
In the 19th century, some scholars, such as German [[Sinology|Sinologist]] [[Julius Heinrich Klaproth]], argued that the Huns had spoken a [[Finno-Ugric]] language and connected them with the ancient [[Hungarians]].{{sfn|Wright|1997|pp=87–89}}

==Possible script==
It is possible that a written form of Hunnic existed and may yet be identified from artifacts. Priscus recorded that Hunnic secretaries read out names of fugitives from a written list.{{sfn|Kim|2013|p=204}} [[Franz Altheim]] considered it was not Greek or Latin, but a script like the [[Oghur languages|Oguric Turkic]] of the [[Bulgars]].{{sfn|Kim|2013|p=204}} He argued that the runes were brought into Europe from [[Central Asia]] by the Huns, and were an adapted version of the old [[Sogdian alphabet]] in the Hunnic (Oghur Turkic) language.{{sfn|Kim|2013|p=55, 204}} [[Zacharias Rhetor]] wrote that in 507/508 AD, Bishop Qardust of [[Arran (Caucasus)|Arran]] went to the land of the Caucasian Huns for seven years, and returned with books written in the Hunnic language.{{sfn|Kim|2013|p=204}} There is some debate as to whether a [[Xiongnu]]-[[Xianbei]] runic system existed, and was part of a wider Eurasian script which gave rise to the [[Old Turkic alphabet]] in the 8th century.{{sfn|Kim|2013|p=205}}

{{Portal|Language}}

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist|20em}}

==References==
* {{cite book|last=Atwood |first=Christopher P. |year=2012 |chapter=Huns and Xiōngnú: New Thoughts on an Old Problem |editor-last1=Boeck |editor-first1=Brian J. |editor-last2=Martin |editor-first2=Russell E. |editor-last3=Rowland |editor-first3=Daniel |title=Dubitando: Studies in History and Culture in Honor of Donald Ostrowski |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=27–52 |isbn=978-0-8-9357-404-8}}
*{{cite book|last=Ball |first=Warwick |title=The Eurasian Steppe: People, Movement, Ideas |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2021 |doi=10.1515/9781474488075|isbn=978-1-4744-8807-5 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Doerfer |first=Gerhard |title=Zur Sprache der Hunnen |journal=Central Asiatic Journal |volume=17 |issue=1 |pages=1–50 |year=1973 }}
*{{cite book|last=Golden |first=Peter B. |title=An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples: Ethnogenesis and State-Formation in Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East |location=Wiesbaden |publisher=Harrassowitz |year=1992 |isbn=978-3-447-03274-2}}
* {{cite book|last=Golden |first=Peter B. |chapter=Some Thoughts on the Origins of the Turks and the Shaping of the Turkic Peoples |title=Contact and Exchange in the Ancient World |editor-last=Mair |editor-first=Victor H. |date=2006 |publisher=University of Hawai'i Press |location=Honolulu |pages=136–157 }}
* {{cite journal| last=Heather |first=Peter |title=The Huns and the End of the Roman Empire in Western Europe |journal=English Historical Review |volume=90 |year=1995 |issue=435 |pages=4–41 |doi=10.1093/ehr/CX.435.4 |doi-access=free }}
* {{Cite book |title=Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe|last=Heather|first=Peter|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0-19-973560-0|author-link=Peter Heather}}
* {{cite book |last1=Heather|first1=Peter|title=The fall of the Roman Empire : a new history of Rome and the barbarians|date=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-19-515954-7|pages=146–167}}
* {{cite book |author=Hyun Jin Kim |year=2013 |title=The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jCpncXFzoFgC |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107009066 |ref={{harvid|Kim2013}}}}
* {{cite book |last1=Kim |first1=Hyun Jin |title=The Huns |year=2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781138841758 |language=en}}
* {{cite book |last=Maenchen-Helfen |first=Otto J. |author-link=Otto J. Maenchen-Helfen |date=1973 |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_CrUdgzSICxcC_2 |title=The World of the Huns: Studies in Their History and Culture |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=9780520015968 }}
* {{cite journal|last=Maenchen-Helfen |first=Otto J. |year=1945 |title=Huns and Hsiung-Nu |journal=Byzantion|volume=17|pages=222–243}}
* {{cite book |last=Menges |first=Karl Heinrich |title=The Turkic Languages and Peoples: An Introduction to Turkic Studies |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rS8n872Je4MC&pg=PA17 |year=1995 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-03533-0 }}
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* {{cite journal |last=Pritsak |first=Omeljan |author-link=Omeljan Pritsak |date=1982 |title=The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan |journal=Harvard Ukrainian Studies |url=http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/huri/files/vvi_n4_dec1982.pdf |publisher=[[Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute]] |place=Cambridge, Massachusetts |volume=IV |issue=4 |issn=0363-5570 |access-date=2015-11-22 |archive-date=2016-12-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161213172602/http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/files/huri/files/vvi_n4_dec1982.pdf |url-status=dead }}
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* {{cite book |last=Róna-Tas |first=András |title=Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: An Introduction to Early Hungarian History |publisher=Central European University Press |location=Budapest |year=1999 }}
*{{cite journal | last1=Savelyev | first1=Alexander | last2=Jeong | first2=Choongwon | title=Early nomads of the Eastern Steppe and their tentative connections in the West | journal=Evolutionary Human Sciences | publisher=Cambridge University Press (CUP) | volume=2 | year=2020 | issn=2513-843X | doi=10.1017/ehs.2020.18| pmid=35663512 | pmc=7612788 | doi-access=free }}
* {{cite book |last1=Sinor |first1=Denis |chapter=The Hun Period |title=The Cambridge history of early Inner Asia|date=1990|publisher=Cambridge Univ. Press|location=Cambridge [u.a.]|editor-last1=Sinor|editor-first1=Denis|isbn=9780521243049|pages=177–203|edition=1. publ.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ST6TRNuWmHsC }}
* {{cite book |last=Sinor |first=Denis |title=Studies in Medieval Inner Asia |publisher=Ashgate |location=Hampshire |year=1997|isbn=978-0860786320}}
* {{cite book |last=Trask |first=R.L. |author-link=Larry Trask |title=Dictionary of Historical and Comparative Linguistics |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=2000 }}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xsQxcJvaLjAC|title=History of the Goths|last=Wolfram|first=Herwig|date=1990|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|isbn=978-0-5200-6983-1}}
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tOnQDfRU-poC|title=The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples|last=Wolfram|first=Herwig|date=1997|publisher=[[University of California Press]]|isbn=978-0-5200-8511-4|page=142|author-link=Herwig Wolfram}}
* {{cite book| last=Vajda |first=Edward J. |title=Yeniseian Peoples and Languages: A History of Yeniseian Studies with an Annotated Bibliography and a Source Guide |year=2013 |location=Oxford/New York |publisher=Routledge }}
* {{cite journal| last=Wright |first=David Curtis |title=The Hsiung-Nu-Hun Equation Revisited |journal=Eurasian Studies Yearbook |year=1997 |volume=69 |pages=77–112}}

{{Huns}}{{Eurasian languages}}
[[Category:Extinct languages of Europe]]
[[Category:Extinct languages of Asia]]
[[Category:Unclassified languages of Europe]]
[[Category:Unclassified languages of Asia]]
[[Category:Languages attested from the 4th century]]
[[Category:Languages extinct in the 6th century]]
[[Category:Huns]]
[[Category:Hunno-Bulgar languages]]