Previously Assumed Turkic Origin Of The European Huns – Refuted; They Had Ancient Siberian Roots
Conny Waters – AncientPages.com – The European Huns had Paleo-Siberian ancestors and did not descend from Turkic-speaking groups.
A recent linguistic study presents a new evidence to demonstrates a common Paleosiberian language among the European Huns and their Asian ancestors.
On the Yelogui River, a tributary of the Yenisei River in Siberia, a few speakers of a Yenisei language, Ketic, still live in the region. The language of the European Huns belonged to the same language family. Image source
So now, for the first time, long-standing assumptions regarding the origin of the Huns have been questioned and proved wrong.
This is the conclusion of a joint study conducted by researchers Dr. Svenja Bonmann at the Institute of Linguistics at the University of Cologne and Dr. Simon Fries at the Faculty of Classics and the Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics at the University of Oxford.
Their paper is published in the journal Transactions of the Philological Society.
Scientists have used diverse linguistic sources to determine that the ethnic core of the Huns, including the famous Attila and his European ruling dynasty, as well as their Asian ancestors, the Xiongnu, shared a common language.
This language is classified as part of the Yeniseian group, which belongs to the Paleosiberian subgroup of languages.
Before the arrival of Uralic, Turkic, and Tungusic ethnic groups, certain languages were spoken in Siberia. Today, small communities along the banks of the Yenisei River in Russia continue to speak a Yeniseian language.
The Xiongnu established a loose tribal confederation in Inner Asia, spanning from the third century BC to the second century AD. Recent archaeological discoveries in Mongolia have revealed a city believed to be Long Cheng, the capital of the Xiongnu Empire. Meanwhile, the Huns created a significant yet brief multi-ethnic empire in southeastern Europe during the 4th and 5th centuries AD.
Their origin in Inner Asia is scientifically recognized, but their ethnic and linguistic roots remain disputed due to a lack of surviving written documents in their language. Knowledge about the Huns and Xiongnu relies on foreign documents; for instance, “Xiong-nú” is a Chinese term.
From the seventh century AD, Turkic peoples expanded westward. Therefore, it was assumed that the Xiongnu and Huns, who expanded earlier, also spoke a Turkic language.
However, Bonmann and Fries found linguistic evidence suggesting these groups spoke an early form of Aryan, a Yeniseian language, in Inner Asia around the turn of the Common Era.
“This was long before the Turkic peoples migrated to Inner Asia and even before the splitting of Proto-Turkic into several daughter languages,” said says Dr. Svenja Bonmann from the University of Cologne.
“This Old Aryan language even influenced the early Turkic languages ??and enjoyed a certain prestige in Inner Asia. This implies that Old Aryan was probably the mother tongue of the ruling dynasty of the Xiongnu.”
It’s worth mentioning that once, the Xiongnu was the dominant power on the steppes of East Asia, centered on the Mongolian Plateau.
Bonmann and Fries had still much to do. So, they evaluated linguistic data from loanwords, Chinese glosses, proper names of the Hunnic ruling dynasty, and place and water names. Individually insignificant, these data collectively support the conclusion that both the Xiongnu ruling dynasty and the Huns’ ethnic core spoke Old Aryan.
The findings of the study also made it possible for the first time to concretely trace the migration of the Huns to Europe.
Scientists suggest that the names of places and bodies of water point to an Aryan-speaking population that historically influenced Inner Asia. This group is believed to have migrated westward from the Altai-Sayan region, leaving linguistic traces in their wake.
As for Attila the Hun’s name, it may have ancient Aryan origin. Previously, “Attila” was believed to be a Germanic neologism meaning “little father.” However, recent research suggests that “Attila” could also be interpreted as a Yeniseian epithet, translating to “the swift, swift one.”
The new linguistic findings support previous genetic and archaeological findings that the European Huns are descendants of the Xiongnu.
“Our study demonstrates that, alongside archaeology and genetics, comparative linguistics plays a vital role in the study of human history. We hope that our results will stimulate further research into the history of lesser-known languages and thus contribute to our understanding of human linguistic development,” summarized Dr. Simon Fries of the University of Oxford.
Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer
