A recent linguistic study revealed some amazing information about Attila the Hun. If true, this would place his name’s origin in the old Arin tongue — a revelation upending the century-long contention that Arin had dramatic Germanic roots. Historical linguistics has shown that “Attila” is probably a Yeniseian epithet meaning “swift-ish” or “quick-ish.” This understanding turns long assumed ideas about who the historical figure is completely upside down.
Attila went down in history as one of the most fearsome leaders to ever walk the earth. In the past, scholars assumed he had a Germanic nickname meaning something like “little father.” Our linguistic analysis tells a different, more complicated story of that heritage. As previously explained, the study argues that the European Huns—Attila and his ruling dynasty—originally spoke a language from the Yeniseian family. This language family is a subgroup of the Paleo-Siberian families.
Smoke signals—screenshots from Etnogenez, a documentary on the Yeniseian language, once spoken in Siberia before the arrival of Uralic, Turkic, and Tungusic ethnos. Today, a handful of speakers of the Yeniseian language Ket still live in the area. The study challenges this narrative and shows that the Huns probably migrated to Europe from a larger area including the Altai-Sayan region. Along with them they carried their linguistic heritage.
According to ancient sources, and confirmed by archaeological evidence, the Xiongnu created an effective tribal confederation ruling over much of Inner Asia from the 3rd century BCE to the 2nd century CE. They spoke the same Paleo-Siberian language as the Huns. Researchers speculate that Old Arin may have been the principal language of the Xiongnu aristocratic elite. This ancient language would have shaped a number of early Turkic languages and was of great prestige in Inner Asia.
The name “Xiongnu” originates in these Chinese written texts. This raises important questions about the historical ties between these communities. Mostly, it shows that Attila and the Hunnic ethnic core had a common language. This discovery contradicts previous theories of their Turkic-speaking origins and links them to these Asian ancestors.
“Our study shows that alongside archaeology and genetics, comparative philology plays an essential role in the exploration of human history. We hope that our findings will inspire further research into the history of lesser-known languages and thereby contribute further to our understanding of the linguistic evolution of mankind,” – Fries.
The applications of this study go far beyond Attila the Hun. It also points toward more complicated stories of travel, migration, and cultural exchange among ancient peoples.
“This was long before the Turkic peoples migrated to Inner Asia and even before the splitting of Old Turkic into several daughter languages. This ancient Arin language even influenced the early Turkic languages and enjoyed a certain prestige in Inner Asia. This implies that Old Arin was probably the native language of the Xiongnu ruling dynasty,” – Bonmann.