Editing Xiongnu (section)

== Name ==
The word "Xiōngnú" means "fierce slave."{{sfn|Pearce|2023|p=128}} They were identified by the Han Chinese as invaders from the north who rode on horseback.<ref name="Zeldovich 2023">{{cite web |last=Zeldovich |first=Lina |title=The powerful women of an ancient empire |website=BBC Home |date=2023-11-10 |url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20231106-the-powerful-women-of-an-ancient-empire |access-date=2025-03-13}}</ref> The pronunciation of 匈奴 as Xiōngnú {{IPAc-cmn|x|iong|1|n|u|2}} is the modern [[standard Chinese|Mandarin Chinese]] pronunciation, from the Mandarin dialect spoken now in Beijing, which came into existence less than 1,000 years ago. "The [[Old Chinese]] pronunciation has been reconstructed as *''xiuoŋ-na'' or *''qhoŋna''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gao |first1=Jingyi (高晶一) |title=Huns and Xiongnu Identified by Hungarian and Yeniseian Shared Etymologies |journal=Central Asiatic Journal |date=2013 |volume=56 |page=41 |jstor=10.13173/centasiaj.56.2013.0041 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/10.13173/centasiaj.56.2013.0041.pdf |issn=0008-9192}}</ref> Sinologist Axel Schuessler (2014) reconstructs the pronunciations of 匈奴 as *''hoŋ-nâ'' in Late [[Old Chinese]] ({{Circa|318 BC}}) and as *''hɨoŋ-nɑ'' in [[Eastern Han Chinese]]; citing other Chinese transcriptions wherein the velar nasal medial ''-ŋ-'', after a short vowel, seemingly played the role of a general nasal – sometimes equivalent to ''n'' or ''m'' –, Schuessler proposes that 匈奴 Xiongnu < *''hɨoŋ-nɑ'' < *''hoŋ-nâ'' might be a Chinese rendition, Han or even pre-Han, of foreign *''Hŏna'' or *''Hŭna'', which Schuessler compares to [[Huns]] and Sanskrit ''[[Huna people|Hūṇā]]''.{{sfn|Schuessler|2014|pp=257, 264}} However, the same medial ''-ŋ-'' prompts Christopher P. Atwood (2015) to reconstruct *''Xoŋai'', which he derives from the [[Ongi River]] ({{langx|mn|Онги гол}}) in [[Mongolia]] and suggests that it was originally a dynastic name rather than an ethnic name.<ref>Atwood, Christopher P. (2015). [https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=ealc "The Kai, the Khongai, and the Names of the Xiōngnú"]. International Journal of Eurasian Studies. 2: p of 45–47 of 35–63.</ref>