Editing Huns (section)

=== Languages ===
{{Further|Hunnic language}}
A variety of languages were spoken within the Hun Empire. [[Priscus]] noted that the [[Hunnic language]] differed from other languages spoken at Attila's court.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=377}} He recounts how Attila's [[jester]] [[Zerco]] made Attila's guests laugh also by the "promiscuous jumble of words, Latin mixed with Hunnish and Gothic."{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=377}} Priscus said that Attila's "[[Scythian]]" subjects spoke "besides their own barbarian tongues, either Hunnish, or Gothic, or, as many have dealings with the Western Romans, Latin; but not one of them easily speaks Greek, except captives from the Thracian or Illyrian frontier regions".{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=382}} Some scholars have argued that [[Gothic language|Gothic]] was used as the ''[[lingua franca]]'' of the Hunnic Empire.{{sfnm|1a1=Wolfram|1y=1990|1p=254 |2a1=Wolfram|2y=1997|2p=142 |3a1=Heather|3y=2010|3p=329}} Hyun Jin Kim argues that the Huns may have used as many as four languages at various levels of government, without any one being dominant: Hunnic, Gothic, [[Latin]], and [[Scythian languages|Sarmatian]].{{sfn|Kim|2013|pp=30–31}}

As to the Hunnic language itself, there is no consensus on its relationship to other languages.{{sfn|Ball|2021|p=170}} Only three words are recorded in ancient sources as being "Hunnic," all of which appear to be from an [[Indo-European language]].{{sfnm|1a1=Maenchen-Helfen|1y=1973|1pp=423-426 |2a1=Pohl|2y=1999|2pp=501-502}} All other information on Hunnic is contained in personal names and tribal ethnonyms.{{sfn|Maenchen-Helfen|1973|p=376}} On the basis of these names, scholars have proposed that Hunnic may have been a [[Turkic language]],{{sfnm|1a1=Maenchen-Helfen|1y=1973|10=441 |2a1=Kim|2y=2013|2p=30}} a language between [[Mongolic languages|Mongolic]] and Turkic,{{sfn|Pritsak|1982|p=470}} an [[Eastern Iranian language]],{{sfn|Savelyev|Jeong|2020}} or a [[Yeniseian language]].{{sfn|Vajda|2013|pp=4, 14, 48, 103–6, 108–9, 130–1, 135–6, 182, 204, 263, 286, 310}} However, given the small corpus, many hold the language to be [[unclassified language|unclassifiable]].{{sfnm|1a1=Doerfer|1y=1973|1p=50 |2a1=Golden|2y=1992|2pp=88-89 |3a1=Sinor|3y=1997|3p=336 |4a1=Róna-Tas|4y=1999|4p=208}}