��<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <meta name="Author" content="Vassil Karloukovski"> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft FrontPage 5.0"> <meta name="ProgId" content="FrontPage.Editor.Document"> <title>O. Maenchen-Helfen - The Language of the Huns - 4</title> </head> <body> <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <b><font size="4">The World of the Huns. <i>Chapter IX. Language</i></font></b><font size="4"> <br></font><b>O. Maenchen-Helfen</b> <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><b>4. Germanized and Germanic Names</b> <br>&nbsp; </font> <blockquote><font face="Palatino Linotype"><i><a href="#Attila">Attila</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</i>  &nbsp; <i><a href="#Bleda">Bleda</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</i>  &nbsp;&nbsp; <i><a href="#Edekon">Edekon</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</i>  &nbsp;&nbsp; <i><a href="#Laudaricus">Laudaricus</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</i>  &nbsp; <i><a href="#Onegesius">Onegesius</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</i>  &nbsp;&nbsp; <i><a href="#Ragnaris">Ragnaris</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;</i>  &nbsp;&nbsp; <i><a href="#Ruga">Ruga</a></i></font></blockquote> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><br><a NAME="Attila"></a><i>Attila</i> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">The name <a href="#83.">[83]</a> seems to offers neither phonetic nor semantic difficulties. Attila is formed from Gothic or Gepidic <i>atta</i>, "father," by means of the diminutive suffix -<i>ila</i>. It has often been compared to <i>batyushka</i>, the diminituve of <i>batya</i>, "father," as the Russian peasants used to call the tsar. In 1962 the Uzbek poet Kmil Nughman Y�sin addressed Nikita Khrushchev as &quot;the dear father of the �zbek people.&quot; <a href="#84.">[84]</a> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Attila is not a rare name. Venantius Fortunatus mentions a <i>regulus aulae domesticus</i> by that name. <a href="#85.">[85]</a> �tla, bishop of Dorchester, <a href="#86.">[86]</a> was certainly not named after the Hun king. <a href="#87.">[87]</a> �tla seems to be concealed in some English place names (Attleford, Attlefield, Attleborough, Attlebridge). <a href="#88.">[88]</a> Attila occurred as a monk's name in Switzerland as late as the twelfth century. <a href="#89.">[89]</a> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Some scholars, impressed by the similarity of Attila to �til, the Turkish name of the Volga, equated the two names without caring for their phonetic and semantic relationship. <a href="#90.">[90]</a> R�sonyi was slightly troubled by the final -<i>a</i> in Attila, but he thought that he could dispose of it by going back to what he took to be the earliest from. He regarded -aV in Priscus'&nbsp;<img SRC="386_1.jpg" height=19 width=79 align=ABSBOTTOM> as the Greek ending and -<i>a</i> in K�z</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">ai's <i>Ethela</i> as the old Magyar diminutive. In this way he arrived at Atil = �til, Volga or perhaps just &quot;big water.&quot; <a href="#91.">[91]</a> However, the thesis that K�z</font><font face="Arial Unicode MS">#</font><font face="Palatino Linotype">ai, who dedicated his <i>Gesta Hungarorum</i> to Ladislaus IV (1272-1290), preserved genuine Magyar traditions about the Huns has long been refuted. Eighty years ago Hodgkin wrote: "The Hungarian traditions no more fully illustrate the history of Attila than the<i> Book of Mormon</i> illustrates the history of the Jews." <a href="#92.">[92]</a> R�sonyi&#39;s explanation of the name in Priscus is unconvincing. As Latin <i>Attila</i> shows, </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>&nbsp;387 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">the name ends in -<i>a</i>, not in -<i>l</i>; compare&nbsp;<img SRC="387_1.jpg" height=18 width=73 align=ABSBOTTOM> = Ansila,&nbsp;<img SRC="387_2.jpg" height=18 width=69 align=ABSBOTTOM> = Hunila,&nbsp;<img SRC="387_3.jpg" height=18 width=71 align=ABSBOTTOM> = Totila,&nbsp;<img SRC="387_4.jpg" height=20 width=81 align=ABSBOTTOM> = Vulfila, and so forth. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Pritsak <a href="#93.">[93]</a> offered an etymology of both the name of the king and that of the river. In his opinion <i>Atil</i>, <i>Adil</i>, and so forth, meant the same as Attila. He argues as follows: </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">1. In theByzantine sources the name of the Volga appears as&nbsp;<img SRC="387_5.jpg" height=18 width=74 align=ABSBOTTOM><sup>(acc)</sup>,&nbsp;<img SRC="387_6.jpg" height=16 width=31 align=ABSBOTTOM>,&nbsp;<img SRC="387_7.jpg" height=20 width=60 align=ABSBOTTOM>, and&nbsp;<img SRC="387_8.jpg" height=20 width=50 align=ABSBOTTOM>. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">2. These forms show that the Altaic name of the Volga is compounded of two words: aV and til, thl, tel. The second word could have the enlarged form til + a. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">3. There are two rivers called <i>Tal</i>; one flows into Lake Balkhash and the other one is in the region of the Syr-Darya. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">4. Common Turkish <i>a/�</i> changed in Chuvash into <i> i/� </i>in very early times, </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">5. Chuvash *<i>as</i>, preserved only in suffixed forms, means "great, big." </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">6. In Hunnish, which developed into Bulgar-Chuvash, *<i>�s-t�l</i>, *<i>as-t�l-a</i> must have meant <i>grosse Wassermenge, grosser Fluss, grosses Meer</i>. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">7. On analogy with&nbsp;<i> ingis qa'an</i> and <i>dalai-in qa'an</i>, "oceanic = universal ruler," the Uigur title <i>k�l bilg� qan</i>, which is said to mean "the qan whose mind is like a lake," and <i>Dalai lama</i>, "oceanic = universal religious lord," Attila, *<i>�tt-la</i> &lt; *<i>�s-t�la</i> means "oceanic > all embracing > universal (ruler)." </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">This is an ingenious but for many reasons unacceptable etymology. To begin with the arguments based on Chuvash words and forms, according to Benzing (the leading authority on Chuvash), Turkish <i>a/�</i> changed to Chuvash <i>i/�</i> not before the eleventh or twelfth century. <a href="#94.">[94]</a> Even if there existed a Chuvash word *<i>as</i>, "big, great, large," how can we know that in the language of the Huns in the fifth century the same word existed with the same meaning? [<i>At this point, one or two manuscript pages are missing.  Ed.</i>] </font> <p> <hr WIDTH="60%"> <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <br><a NAME="Bleda"></a><i>Bleda</i> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Attila's older brother. The Greek sources have&nbsp;<img SRC="387_9.jpg" height=20 width=64 align=ABSBOTTOM> and&nbsp;<img SRC="387_10.jpg" height=18 width=62 align=ABSBOTTOM>, the Latin <i>Bleda</i>. <a href="#95.">[95]</a> The Arian bishop whom Marcian sent as his ambassador </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>&nbsp;388 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">to Geiseric, <a href="#96.">[96]</a> and one of Totila's generals <a href="#97.">[97]</a> had the same name. It is generally agreed that Bleda is Germanic, the short form of a name like OHG <i>Bladardus</i>, <i>Blatgildus</i>, <i>Blatgisus</i>. <a href="#98.">[98]</a> Bleda of Marcellinus Comes (<i>s.a.</i> 442) appears in Bede's <i>Chronicle</i> in the strange form Bl�dla. <a href="#99.">[99]</a> The English scribes &quot;corrected&quot; the name; they knew it as Bl�dla from oral tradition where the name was adapted to �tla. <a href="#100.">[100]</a> </font> <p> <hr WIDTH="60%"> <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <br><a NAME="Edekon"></a><img SRC="388_1.jpg" height=17 width=69 align=ABSBOTTOM> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">One of Attila's counselors, <a href="#101.">[101]</a> by birth a Hun. <a href="#102.">[102]</a> Edekon is Grecized *<i>Edika</i>; <a href="#103.">[103]</a> the hypocoristic form applied to a person whose true name began with <i>Ed</i>-, such as Edivulf. <a href="#104.">[104]</a> </font> <p> <hr WIDTH="60%"> <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <br><a NAME="Laudaricus"></a><i>Laudaricus</i> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Killed in the battle at the <i>locus Mauriacus</i>. The Gallic chronicle of 511 calls him <i>cognatus Attilae</i>. <a href="#105.">[105]</a> Laudaricus is Germanic *<i>Laudareiks</i>. <a href="#106.">[106]</a> </font> <p> <hr WIDTH="60%"> <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <br><a NAME="Onegesius"></a><img SRC="388_2.jpg" height=20 width=95 align=ABSBOTTOM> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Attila's prime minister. <a href="#107.">[107]</a> Onegesius is evidently not Greek <a href="#108.">[108]</a> but the Grecized form of a barbarian name. Hodgkin <a href="#109.">[109]</a> boldly Hunnicized it into Onegesh. *<i>Oneges</i> seems to be Hunigis, <a href="#110.">[110]</a> as a spatharius of Theoderic the Great was called. <a href="#111.">[111]</a> -<i>gis</i> appears in Greek transcriptions as giV and ghV, <a href="#112.">[112]</a> <i>huni</i>- is rendered by&nbsp;<img SRC="388_3.jpg" height=15 width=42 align=ABSBOTTOM> and&nbsp;<img SRC="388_4.jpg" height=15 width=38 align=ABSBOTTOM>. <a href="#113.">[113]</a> <i>Hun</i>- in East Germanic </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>&nbsp;389 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">names is most probably the same as <i>hun</i> in OHG, OE, and ON names, namely either ON <i>h�nn</i>, "cub of a bear, young man," or proto-Germanic <i>hkn</i>, "high." <a href="#114.">[114]</a> Hunila, a Gothic bishop of about 400, <a href="#115.">[115]</a> was born and named before the Huns crossed the Don. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">I think Thompson is right in identifying Onegesius with Hunigasius, Attila's interpreter and spokesman in the <i>Vita s. Lupi</i>. <a href="#116.">[116]</a> R�sonyi, taking -<i>sios</i> for the Greek ending, suggests a Turkish etymology: <i>oneki</i>, "twelve." <a href="#117.">[117]</a> However, among the hundreds of transcriptions of foreign names listed by Moravcsik there is not one ending in -<i>esios</i>. Oneki would have been transcribed *<i>Onekios</i>. Onegesius is spelled like&nbsp;<img SRC="389_1.jpg" height=20 width=85 align=ABSBOTTOM>,&nbsp;<img SRC="389_2.jpg" height=20 width=115 align=ABSBOTTOM> and so forth. </font> <p> <hr WIDTH="60%"> <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <br><a NAME="Ragnaris"></a><img SRC="389_3.jpg" height=19 width=84 align=ABSBOTTOM> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">Leader of the Ostrogoths in the last campaign against the East Romans in 552-554. <a href="#118.">[118]</a> He was not&nbsp;<img SRC="389_4.jpg" height=20 width=81 align=ABSBOTTOM> with them but a Hun from the&nbsp;<img SRC="389_5.jpg" height=20 width=76 align=ABSBOTTOM> <a href="#119.">[119]</a> Ragnaris is a Germanic name. <a href="#120.">[120]</a> </font> <p> <hr WIDTH="60%"> <font face="Palatino Linotype"> <br><a NAME="Ruga"></a><i>Ruga</i> </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">The Eastern sources call Attila's uncle&nbsp;<img SRC="389_6.jpg" height=20 width=68 align=ABSBOTTOM>,&nbsp;<img SRC="389_7.jpg" height=18 width=67 align=ABSBOTTOM> and&nbsp;<img SRC="389_8.jpg" height=18 width=71 align=ABSBOTTOM>, <a href="#121.">[121]</a> the Western Ruga, <a href="#122.">[122]</a> Roas, <a href="#123.">[123]</a> and Rugila. <a href="#124.">[124]</a> These forms lead to Ruga > Rua and, with the suffix -<i>ila</i>, to Rugila > Ruila. Compare Rugemirus, Rugolf, and similar names. <a href="#125.">[125]</a> The connection with Turkish <i>uruq</i>, favored by Markwart, <a href="#126.">[126]</a> is phonetically unsound. <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">With the possible exception of Laudaricus and Ragnaris, these names were not the true names of the Hun princes and lords. What we have are Hunnic names in Germanic dress, modified to fit the Gothic tongue, or popular Gothic etymologies, or both. Mikkola thought Attila might go back to Turkish <i>atl�</i>g, "famous"; <a href="#127.">[127]</a> Poucha finds in it Tokharian <i>at�r</i>, </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><img SRC="line_down.gif" height=18 width=596> <br>&nbsp;390 </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">"hero." <a href="#128.">[128]</a> The first etymology is too farfetched to be taken seriously, the second is nonsense. <br>&nbsp; </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype">[<a href="mh_3.html">Previous</a>] [<a href="mh_5.html">Next</a>] <br>[<a href="index.html">Back to Index</a>] <br> </font> <hr WIDTH="100%"> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="83."></a><b>83.</b> To the forms listed by Moravcsik, BT 2, 79-80, add Nordic <i>Atli</i> and Old English <i>�tla</i>, <i>Etla</i>. See F. Kluge, <i>Englische Studien </i>21, 1895; A. Heusler, <i>ZfDA</i> 52, 1910, 104; Malone 1962, 128. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="84."></a><b>84.</b> <i>CAJ</i> 7:2, 1962, 148. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="85."></a><b>85.</b><i> Vita s. Germani</i> in <i>MGH AA</i> IV:II, 23, 25. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="86."></a><b>86.</b> Beda, <i>Hist. eccles.</i> IV, 23. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="87."></a><b>87.</b> For other examples, see Radin 1919, 147. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="88."></a><b>88.</b> Str�m 1939, 62, n. 1. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="89."></a><b>89.</b> <i>Das Necrologium des Cistercienser Priorales M�nchenweiler</i> in <i>Collectanea Friburgensia</i>, N.F. 10, 1909, 60, 61. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="90."></a><b>90.</b> Moravcsik, BT 2, 80. The first was Bergmann, quoted by Inostrantsev 1926, 20. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="91."></a><b>91.</b> R�sonyi 1953, 349. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="92."></a><b>92.</b> Hodgkin 1898, 20. For a masterful analysis of the <i>Gesta Hungarorum</i>, see Macartney 1951, and 1953, 89-109. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="93."></a><b>93.</b> Pritsak 1956, 404-419. His article takes some liberties with Priscus' text. In order to weaken the thesis of the Gothic origin of the name Attila, Pritsak maintains that Priscus negotiated with the king through the Roman Rusticius. But Maximianus, not Priscus, negotiated with Attila, and the interpreter was not Rusticius but Bigila who, as his names indicates, was most probably a Goth. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="94."></a><b>94.</b> <i>Fundamenta</i> I, 705; <i>ZDMG</i> 98, 1944, 24-27. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="95."></a><b>95.</b> Moravcsik <i>BT</i> 2, 91; Sch�nfeld 1911, 51. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="96."></a><b>96.</b> Priscus, <i>EL</i> 151<sub>26</sub>, 152<sub>1</sub> (<img SRC="388_5.jpg" height=17 width=54 align=ABSBOTTOM>). </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="97."></a><b>97.</b> Procopius VII, 5, 1 (<img SRC="388_6.jpg" height=15 width=51 align=ABSBOTTOM>). </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="98."></a><b>98.</b> Sch�nfeld 1911, 51. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="99."></a><b>99.</b> <i>CM</i> III, 303. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="100."></a><b>100.</b> E. Schr�der, <i>ZfDA</i> 41, 1897, 28. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="101."></a><b>101.</b> Moravcsik, <i>BT</i> 2, 121. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="102."></a><b>102.</b> Priscus, <i>EL</i> 124<sub>7</sub>. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="103."></a><b>103.</b> Cf. Stilika, Stilikon. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="104."></a><b>104.</b> There is no more reason to identify the Hun Edekon with Idikon or Edico, Odovacar's father (cf. Maenchen-Helfen 1947, 836-841) than with Edica, primas of the Sciri (<i>Getica</i> 277). The latter has nothing to do with Odovacar's father, as O. Va<img SRC="i_gd.jpg" height=16 width=9 align=ABSBOTTOM>nshte<img SRC="i_gd.jpg" height=16 width=9 align=ABSBOTTOM>n (<i>Istorik marksist </i>6, 143-146) convincingly demonstrated. According to Klebel (1957, 70, 118), the Bavarian name Etich, attested for the tenth century, is a later form of Edica. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="105."></a><b>105.</b> <i>CM</i> I, 66<sub>615</sub>. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="106."></a><b>106.</b> Sch�nfeld 1911, 277. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="107."></a><b>107.</b> Moravcsik <i>BT</i> 2, 218. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="108."></a><b>108.</b> B. Krusch (<i>MGH</i>, <i>Scr. rer. Merov.</i> 7, 286) derived the name from&nbsp;<img SRC="388_7.jpg" height=16 width=81 align=ABSBOTTOM>. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="109."></a><b>109.</b> 1898, 2, 74, n. 1. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="110."></a><b>110.</b> First suggested by K. V. M�llenhoff, <i>ZfDA</i> 10, 1855, 159. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="111."></a><b>111.</b> Cassiodorus, <i>Variae</i> III, 42. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="112."></a><b>112.</b> Sch�nfeld 1911, 145, 183, 269. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="113."></a><b>113.</b> Honoriopolis, Hunuricopolis, Unuricopolis, the former Hadrimetum, was named after Humeric. Cf. L. Schmidt 1942, 41, n. 2; Courtois 1955, 243, n. 6. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="114."></a><b>114.</b> See Maenchen-Helfen 1955b, 106. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="115."></a><b>115.</b> John Chrysostom, <i>Ep.</i> 14, <i>PG</i> 72, 618. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="116."></a><b>116.</b> Thompson 1948, 223. This is also the opinion of Malone, who, however, denies that the name is Germanic (1959, 106). </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="117."></a><b>117.</b> R�sonyi 1961, 64. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="118."></a><b>118.</b> Procopius VIII, 25, 4; Agathias II, 13-14. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="119."></a><b>119.</b> So Agathias; Procopius calls him a Goth. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="120."></a><b>120.</b> Sch�nfeld 1911, 184; the name is not listed by Moravcsik. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="121."></a><b>121.</b> Moravcsik, <i>BT</i> 2, 260. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="122."></a><b>122.</b> <i>CM</i> I, 659<sub>587</sub>, 661<sub>589</sub>. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="123."></a><b>123.</b> <i>Getica</i> 105<sub>4</sub> (roac in YZ). The ending points to a Greek source, possibly Priscus. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="124."></a><b>124.</b> <i>CM</i> I, 658<sub>112</sub>, 660<sub>116</sub>. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="125."></a><b>125.</b> Sch�nfeld 1911, 279. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="126."></a><b>126.</b> <i>TP</i> 11, 1910, 664. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="127."></a><b>127.</b> <i>JSFOU</i> 30, 1933, 24. </font> <p><font face="Palatino Linotype"><a NAME="128."></a><b>128.</b> <i>CAJ</i> 1, 1955, 291. </font> </body> </html>