Editing Wusun (section)

==Etymology==
''Wusun'' is a modern pronunciation of the [[Chinese Character]]s '烏孫'. The Chinese name '烏孫' (Wūsūn) literally means ''wū'' 'crow, raven' + ''sūn'' 'grandson, descendant'.<ref name="Mayor">{{cite book |last=Mayor |first=Adrienne |author-link=Adrienne Mayor |date=September 22, 2014 |title=The Amazons: Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World  |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j8kmAQAAMAAJ |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |page=421 |isbn=978-1400865130 |access-date=February 13, 2015}}</ref> 

There are several theories about the origin of the name:<ref name="Mingzhe">王明哲, 王炳華 (Mingzhe Wang & Binhua Wang): 從文獻與考古資料論烏孫歷史的幾個重大問題 (Important questions about the history of Wusun arising from the contemporary documents and archaeological investigations). In: 烏孫研究 (Wusun research), 1, 新疆人民出版社 (People's publisher Xinjiang), Ürümqi 1983, S. pp. 1–42.</ref>
* Canadian Sinologist [[Edwin Pulleyblank]] reconstructs the pronunciation of '烏孫' Wūsūn as in [[Middle Chinese]] as ''ou-suən'', from [[Old Chinese]] ''aĥ-smən'' and linked the Wusun to the Άσμίραιοι ''Asmiraioi'', who inhabited modern [[Issyk-Kul]] and [[Jetisu|Semirechiye]] and were mentioned in [[Ptolemy]]'s [[Geography (Ptolemy)|Geography]] (VI.16.3).{{sfn|Pulleyblank|1963a|p=136}}<ref>Lieu, Samuel N.C. (2014) [https://www.mq.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/22152/70929.pdf ''Places and Peoples in Central Asia and in the Graeco-Roman Near East: A Multilingual Gazetteer Compiled for the Serica Project from Selected Pre-Islamic Sources''], p. 23</ref>
* Several scholars (e.g. Hudson, Bernshtam, Hambly, Lindegger) link them to the [[Issedones]].{{sfn|Gardiner-Garden|1986|pp=28-40}}{{sfn|Golden|1992|p=51}}
* Sinologist Victor H. Mair compared ''Wusun'' with [[Sanskrit]] ''áśva'' 'horse', ''aśvin'' 'mare' and [[Lithuanian language|Lithuanian]] ''ašvà'' 'mare'. The name would thus mean 'the horse people'. Hence he put forward the hypothesis that the Wusun used a [[Centum-satem isogloss|satem]]-like language within the [[Indo-European languages]]. However, the latter hypothesis is not supported by [[Edwin G. Pulleyblank]].{{sfn|Pulleyblank|2002|pp=426–427}} [[Christopher I. Beckwith]]'s analysis is similar to Mair's, reconstructing the Chinese term Wusun as [[Old Chinese]] *''âswin'', which he compares to [[Old Indic]] ''aśvin'' 'the horsemen', the name of the [[Rigvedic deities|Rigvedic]] [[Ashvins|twin equestrian gods]].<ref name="Beckwith376">{{harvnb|Beckwith|2009|pp=376–377}}</ref>
* Étienne de la Vaissière identifies the Wusun with the ''wδ'nn'p'', mentioned on Kultobe inscriptions as enemies of the Sogdian-speaking [[Kangju]] confederation. ''Wδ'nn'p'' contains two morphemes ''n'p'' "people" and *''wδ'n'' [wiðan], which is cognate with [[Parthian language|Manichaean Parthian]] ''wd'n'' and means "tent". Vaissière hypothesizes that the Wusun likely spoke an Iranian language closely related to [[Sogdian language|Sogdian]], permitting Sogdians to translate their endonym as *''wδ'n'' [wiðan] and Chinese to transcribe their endonym with a native Chinese /s/ standing for a foreign [[dental fricative]]. Therefore, Vaissière reconstructs Wusun's endonym as *''Wəθan'' "[People of the] Tent(s)".<ref name="Vaissiere2013">{{cite journal|last= de la Vaissière|first= Étienne|title= Iranian in Wusun? A tentative reinterpretation of the Kultobe Inscription|journal= Commentationes Iranicae. Vladimiro F. Aaron Livschits Nonagenario Donum Natalicium|pages= 320–325|year= 2013|url= https://www.academia.edu/t/pKKeR/5731941}}</ref>