Hunnic language
Hunnic | |
---|---|
Region | From Unclassified |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | xhc |
xhc | |
Glottolog | None |
The Hunnic language, or Hunnish, was the language spoken by Huns in the Hunnic Empire, a heterogeneous, multi-ethnic tribal confederation which invaded Eastern and Central Europe, and ruled most of Pannonian Eastern Europe, during the 4th and 5th centuries CE. A variety of languages were spoken within the Hun Empire.[1] A contemporary report by Priscus has that Hunnish was spoken alongside Gothic and the languages of other tribes subjugated by the Huns.[2]
As no inscriptions or whole sentences in the Hunnic language have been preserved, the attested corpus is very limited, consisting almost entirely of
There is no consensus on the classification of the Hunnish language,[4] but due to the origin of these proper names it has been compared with Turkic,[5][6] Mongolic, Iranian,[7] and Yeniseian languages,[8] and with various Indo-European languages.[9] Other scholars consider the available evidence inconclusive and the Hunnish language therefore unclassifiable.[10] According to R.L. Trask, the Hunnic language is extinct.[11]
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:
In the villages we were supplied with food – millet instead of corn – and medos as the natives call it. The attendants who followed us received millet and a drink of barley, which the barbarians call kamos.[12][5]
When the Huns had mourned him [Attila] with such lamentations, a strava, as they call it, was celebrated over his tomb with great revelling.[13]
The words medos, a beverage akin to
All other information on the Hunnic language is contained in the form of personal and tribal names.[3]
Possible affiliations
Many of the waves of nomadic 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.[4]
Unclassifiable
Given the small corpus, a number of scholars hold the Hunnic language to be unclassifiable until further evidence, if any, is discovered.[16][17][18][19][20] András Róna-Tas notes that "the very scant sources of information are often mutually contradictory."[21]
Turkic or Altaic sprachbund
A number of historians and linguists including
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.
Yeniseian
Some scholars – most notably
Vajda (et al. 2013) proposed that the ruling elite of the Huns spoke a Yeniseian language and influenced other languages in the region.[32] 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.[24]
Indo-European
All three words described as "Hunnic" by ancient sources appear to be Indo-European.[9]
A number of scholars suggest that a Germanic language, possibly Gothic, may have coexisted with another Hunnic language as the lingua franca of the Hunnic Empire.[33][34][35] Maenchen-Helfen suggests that the words medos and kamos could possibly be of Germanic origin.[9] He argues that Attila, Bleda, Laudaricus, Onegesius, Ragnaris, and Ruga are Germanic,[36] while Heather also includes the names Scottas and Berichus.[37] Kim questions the Germanic etymologies of Ruga, Attila, and Bleda, arguing that there are "more probable Turkic etymologies."[6] 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.[38]
Maenchen-Helfen also classified some names as having roots in Iranian.[7] 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/Baktrian [Iranian-speaking] leadership and organization".[39] Subjects of the Huns included Iranian-speaking Alans and Sarmatians,[40] 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.[41] Kim, however, argues for a considerable presence of Iranian-speakers among the Huns.[42]
The word strava has been argued to be of 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".[43] In the 19th century, some Russian scholars argued that the Huns as a whole had spoken a Slavic language.[44]
Uralic
In the 19th century, some scholars, such as German
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.
Footnotes
- ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 377.
- ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 382.
- ^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 376.
- ^ a b Ball 2021, p. 170.
- ^ a b c Pronk-Tiethoff 2013, p. 58.
- ^ a b c Kim 2013, p. 30.
- ^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 390–391.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c d Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 424–426.
- ^ Doerfer 1973, p. 50; Golden 1992, pp. 88–89; Sinor 1997, p. 336; Róna-Tas 1999, p. 208.
- ^ Trask 2000, p. 154.
- ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 424.
- ^ a b Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 425.
- ISBN 9780520015968. Archivedfrom the original on 2015-11-23. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
- ISBN 9781882785131. Archivedfrom the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2020-03-04.
- ^ Doerfer 1973, p. 50.
- ^ Golden 2006, pp. 136–137.
- ^ Sinor 1990, pp. 201–202.
- ^ a b Heather 2005, p. 148.
- ^ a b Heather 2010, p. 209.
- ^ Róna-Tas 1999, p. 208.
- ^ a b c Menges 1995, p. 17.
- ^ Pritsak 1982, p. 470.
- ^ a b c Savelyev & Jeong 2020.
- ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 392–411.
- ^ Sinor 1990, p. 202.
- ^ Heather 1995, p. 5.
- ^ E. G. Pulleyblank, "The consonontal system of old Chinese" [Pt 1], Asia Major, vol. IX (1962), pp. 1–2.
- ^ Vajda 2013, pp. 4, 14, 48, 103–6, 108–9, 130–1, 135–6, 182, 204, 263, 286, 310.
- ^ Vovin, Alexander (2000). "Did the Xiong-nu Speak a Yeniseian Language?". Central Asiatic Journal. 44 (1): 87–104.
- ^ Kim 2013, pp. 20–30.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Wolfram 1990, p. 254.
- ^ Wolfram 1997, p. 142.
- ^ Heather 2010, p. 329.
- ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, pp. 386–389.
- ^ Heather 2005, p. 329.
- ^ Kim 2015, p. 111.
- ^ Atwood 2012, p. 47.
- ^ Heather 2005, pp. 146–167.
- ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1973, p. 443.
- ^ Kim 2015, p. 4, 8.
- ^ Heather 2010, p. 394.
- ^ Maenchen-Helfen 1945, pp. 223.
- ^ Wright 1997, pp. 87–89.
- ^ a b c Kim 2013, p. 204.
- ^ Kim 2013, p. 55, 204.
- ^ Kim 2013, p. 205.
References
- Atwood, Christopher P. (2012). "Huns and Xiōngnú: New Thoughts on an Old Problem". In Boeck, Brian J.; Martin, Russell E.; Rowland, Daniel (eds.). Dubitando: Studies in History and Culture in Honor of Donald Ostrowski. Cambridge University Press. pp. 27–52. ISBN 978-0-8-9357-404-8.
- Ball, Warwick (2021). The Eurasian Steppe: People, Movement, Ideas. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-1-4744-8807-5.
- Doerfer, Gerhard (1973). "Zur Sprache der Hunnen". Central Asiatic Journal. 17 (1): 1–50.
- Golden, Peter B. (1992). An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples: Ethnogenesis and State-Formation in Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia and the Middle East. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-03274-2.
- Golden, Peter B. (2006). "Some Thoughts on the Origins of the Turks and the Shaping of the Turkic Peoples". In Mair, Victor H. (ed.). Contact and Exchange in the Ancient World. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. pp. 136–157.
- Heather, Peter (1995). "The Huns and the End of the Roman Empire in Western Europe". English Historical Review. 90 (435): 4–41. .
- ISBN 978-0-19-973560-0.
- Heather, Peter (2005). The fall of the Roman Empire : a new history of Rome and the barbarians. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 146–167. ISBN 978-0-19-515954-7.
- Hyun Jin Kim (2013). The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107009066.
- Kim, Hyun Jin (2015). The Huns. Routledge. ISBN 9781138841758.
- ISBN 9780520015968.
- Maenchen-Helfen, Otto J. (1945). "Huns and Hsiung-Nu". Byzantion. 17: 222–243.
- Menges, Karl Heinrich (1995). The Turkic Languages and Peoples: An Introduction to Turkic Studies. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-03533-0.
- ISBN 978-0-674-51173-6.
- ISSN 0363-5570. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2016-12-13. Retrieved 2015-11-22.
- Pronk-Tiethoff, Saskia (2013). The Germanic loanwords in Proto-Slavic. Rodopi. ISBN 9789401209847.
- Róna-Tas, András (1999). Hungarians and Europe in the Early Middle Ages: An Introduction to Early Hungarian History. Budapest: Central European University Press.
- Savelyev, Alexander; Jeong, Choongwon (2020). "Early nomads of the Eastern Steppe and their tentative connections in the West". Evolutionary Human Sciences. 2. Cambridge University Press (CUP). PMID 35663512.
- Sinor, Denis (1990). "The Hun Period". In Sinor, Denis (ed.). The Cambridge history of early Inner Asia (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge Univ. Press. pp. 177–203. ISBN 9780521243049.
- Sinor, Denis (1997). Studies in Medieval Inner Asia. Hampshire: Ashgate. ISBN 978-0860786320.
- Trask, R.L. (2000). Dictionary of Historical and Comparative Linguistics. Edinburgh University Press.
- Wolfram, Herwig (1990). History of the Goths. ISBN 978-0-5200-6983-1.
- ISBN 978-0-5200-8511-4.
- 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.
- Wright, David Curtis (1997). "The Hsiung-Nu-Hun Equation Revisited". Eurasian Studies Yearbook. 69: 77–112.