The
Hunnic language, or
Hunnish, is the
languageA language is a system of signs for encoding and decoding information. Since language and languages became an object of study by the ancient grammarians, the term has had many and different definitions...
spoken by the historic
HunsThe Huns were a group of nomadic pastoral people who, appearing from beyond the Volga, migrated into Europe c. 370 AD and built up an enormous empire in Europe. Since De Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu who had been northern neighbours of China three hundred years before, considerable scholarly...
. The literary records for this language are sparse, consisting of a few names and words, and there is no firm scholarly consensus on its affinities.
Hunnic as a Turkic language
The suggestion that Hunnic was a Turkic language arises from the identification of some of the Hunnic names, attested in the surviving literary records, as Turkic.. Other names were classified as
GermanicThe Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
and
IranianThe Iranian languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family and its subfamily, Indo-Iranian. They are spoken by the Iranian peoples. Old Persian is the oldest recorded Iranian language....
. The recorded words (
medos, kamos, strava, (and possibly
cucurun)) do not seem to be Turkic.
The inscription on the Khan Diggiz plate has been interpreted as giving the name of a known Hunnic king,
DengizichDengizich ruler of the Akatziroi, was a son of Attila the Hun. The word "Dengizich" means little sea in old Turkic . This is also said to be the root of the name Genghis and also the name Danzig.Some time during his reign, the Utigurs first crossed the river Volga...
, son of Attila, in a form of Turkish..
Hunnic has been considered, with the extinct languages Bulgar,
KhazarKhazar was the language spoken by the Khazars, a semi-nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia. It is also referred to as Khazarian, Khazaric, or Khazari. The language is extinct and written records are almost non-existent.-Description:...
, Turkic Avar and present-day
ChuvashChuvash is a Turkic language spoken in central Russia, primarily in the Republic of Chuvashia and adjacent areas. It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages....
, to be a member of the Oghuric branch of the Turkic language family. All except for Chuvash are extinct and known only from very scanty records.
Hunnic and other language groups
Attempts have been made to identify the Hunnic language as related to Hungarian.
Hungarian
legends and histories from medieval times onwards assume close ties with the Huns. The name
Hunor is preserved in legends and (with a few Hunnic names, such as
Attila) is used as a given name in modern
HungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of EU, NATO, OECD, V4 and is a Schengen state...
. Some Hungarian people share the belief that the
SzékelyThe Székely or Szekler people or Szekels are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the historical province of Székely Land of the Transylvania region today forming part of Romania...
s, a Hungarian ethnic group living in Romania, are descended from a group of
HunsThe Huns were a group of nomadic pastoral people who, appearing from beyond the Volga, migrated into Europe c. 370 AD and built up an enormous empire in Europe. Since De Guignes linked them with the Xiongnu who had been northern neighbours of China three hundred years before, considerable scholarly...
who remained in the Carpathian Basin after 454; this myth was recorded in the medieval
Gesta HungarorumGesta Hungarorum is a record of early Hungarian history by an unknown author who describes himself as Anonymi Bele Regis Notarii , but is generally cited as Anonymus...
..
It has been suggested that the Hunnic language was related to that of the
XiongnuThe Xiongnu were a confederation of nomadic tribes from Central Asia with a ruling class of unknown origin. The bulk of information on the Xiongnu comes from Chinese sources...
and not to other language groups, but there is no scholarly consensus on this suggestion or on what languages the Xiongnu spoke.
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