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  • "Linguistic Evidence Suggests that =?UTF-8?Q?Xi=C5=8Dng=2Dn=C3=BA?= and

    From Christian Weisgerber@21:1/5 to All on Sat Jun 28 21:43:42 2025
    This came up on Language Log:

    "Linguistic Evidence Suggests that Xiōng-nú and Huns Spoke the Same Paleo-Siberian Language"
    Svenja Bonmann, Simon Fries
    First published: 16 June 2025
    https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968X.12321

    Abstract
    The Xiōng-nú were a tribal confederation who dominated Inner Asia
    from the third century BC to the second century AD. Xiōng-nú
    descendants later constituted the ethnic core of the European
    Huns. It has been argued that the Xiōng-nú spoke an Iranian,
    Turkic, Mongolic or Yeniseian language, but the linguistic
    affiliation of the Xiōng-nú and the Huns is still debated. Here,
    we show that linguistic evidence from four independent domains
    does indeed suggest that the Xiōng-nú and the Huns spoke the same
    Paleo-Siberian language and that this was an early form of Arin,
    a member of the Yeniseian language family. This identification
    augments and confirms genetic and archaeological studies and
    inspires new interdisciplinary research on Eurasian population
    history.

    (I'm in no position to judge this paper. From the included references
    it is clear that a lot has been written on this subject before.)

    --
    Christian "naddy" Weisgerber [email protected]

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Aidan Kehoe@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jun 29 20:17:11 2025
    Ar an t-ochtú lá is fiche de mí Meitheamh, scríobh Christian Weisgerber:

    This came up on Language Log:

    "Linguistic Evidence Suggests that Xiōng-nú and Huns Spoke the Same Paleo-Siberian Language"
    Svenja Bonmann, Simon Fries
    First published: 16 June 2025
    https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968X.12321

    Abstract
    The Xiōng-nú were a tribal confederation who dominated Inner Asia
    from the third century BC to the second century AD. Xiōng-nú
    descendants later constituted the ethnic core of the European
    Huns. It has been argued that the Xiōng-nú spoke an Iranian,
    Turkic, Mongolic or Yeniseian language, but the linguistic
    affiliation of the Xiōng-nú and the Huns is still debated. Here,
    we show that linguistic evidence from four independent domains
    does indeed suggest that the Xiōng-nú and the Huns spoke the same
    Paleo-Siberian language and that this was an early form of Arin,
    a member of the Yeniseian language family. This identification
    augments and confirms genetic and archaeological studies and
    inspires new interdisciplinary research on Eurasian population
    history.

    (I'm in no position to judge this paper. From the included references
    it is clear that a lot has been written on this subject before.)

    At least the methods are based on vocabulary analysis rather than the more, umm, creative methods of other papers that get plenty of media coverage.

    I’d never heard of the Xiōng-nú and I don’t have the background in the relevant
    languages to comment on sound progression, but I’m glad to have learned of the
    paper, thank you Christian.

    --
    ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out /
    How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’
    (C. Moore)

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)