Editing Xiongnu (section)

=== Proposed link to the Huns ===
{{see also|Origin of the Huns}}
{| class="wikitable" style="float: right; margin: 10px;"
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! colspan="2" |Pronunciation of 匈奴
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|[[Old Chinese]] (318 BC): || {{IPA|*hoŋ-nâ}}
|-
|[[Eastern Han Chinese]]: || {{IPA|*hɨoŋ-nɑ}}
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|[[Middle Chinese]]: || {{IPA|*hɨoŋ-nuo}}
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|[[Standard Mandarin|Modern Mandarin]]: || {{IPAc-cmn|x|iong|1|-|n|u|2}}
|-
| colspan=2 style= "font-size: 80%;" |{{ubl|Sources: Schuessler (2014:264){{sfn|Schuessler|2014|p=264}} | & Zhengzhang Shangfang.<ref name=":01"/><ref name=":02"/>}}
|}
The Xiongnu-Hun hypothesis was originally proposed by the 18th-century French historian [[Joseph de Guignes]], who noticed that ancient Chinese scholars had referred to members of tribes which were associated with the Xiongnu by names which were similar to the name "Hun", albeit with varying Chinese characters. [[Étienne de la Vaissière]] has shown that, in the [[Sogdian alphabet|Sogdian script]] used in the so-called "Sogdian Ancient Letters", both the Xiongnu and the Huns were referred to as the γwn (''xwn''), which indicates that the two names were synonymous.<ref name="vaissiere2006"/> Although the theory that the Xiongnu were the precursors of the Huns as they were later known in Europe is now accepted by many scholars, it has yet to become a consensus view. The identification with the Huns may either be incorrect or it may be an oversimplification (as would appear to be the case with a [[Proto-Mongols|proto-Mongol]] people, the [[Rouran]], who have sometimes been linked to the [[Pannonian Avars|Avars of Central Europe]]).