An ethnonym (from the Greek: ἔθνος, éthnos, "nation" and ὄνομα, ónoma, "name") is the name applied to a given ethnic group. Ethnonyms can be divided into two categories: exonyms (where the name of the ethnic group has been created by another group of people) and autonyms or endonyms (self-designation; where the name is created and used by the ethnic group itself).

As an example, the ethnonym for the ethnically dominant group in Germany is the Germans. This ethnonym is an exonym used by the English-speaking world, although the term itself is derived from Latin. Conversely, Germans themselves use the autonym of die Deutschen. Germans are indicated by exonyms in many European languages, such as Italian (tedeschi), French (Allemands), Spanish (Alemanes) and Polish (Niemcy).

Variations[link]

Numerous ethnonyms can apply to the same ethnic or racial group, with various levels of recognition, acceptance and use. The State Library of South Australia contemplated this issue when considering Library of Congress Headings for literature pertaining to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Some 20 different ethnonyms were considered as potential Library of Congress headings, but it was recommended that only a fraction of them be employed for the purposes of cataloguing.^[1]

Change over time[link]

Ethnonyms can change in character over time; while originally socially acceptable, they may come to be considered offensive. For instance, the term Gypsy has been used to refer to the Roma. Other examples include Vandal, Bushman, Barbarian, and Philistine.

The ethnonyms applied to African Americans have demonstrated a greater evolution; older terms such as colored carried negative connotations and have been replaced by modern-day equivalents such as black or African-American.^[2] Other ethnonyms such as Negro have a different status. The term was considered acceptable in its use by activists such as Martin Luther King in the 1960s,^[3] but other activists took a different perspective. In discussing an address in 1960 by Elijah Muhammad, it was stated "to the Muslims, terms like Negro and colored are labels created by white people to negate the past greatness of the black race".^[4]

Four decades later, a similar difference of opinion remains. In 2006, one commentator suggested that the term Negro is outdated or offensive in many quarters,^[2] although its use remains in organisations such as the United Negro College Fund;^[5] similarly, the word "colored" still appears in the name of the NAACP, or National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

In this context, an ethnonym has the potential to mimic the phenomenon of the euphemism treadmill.

Linguistics[link]

In English, ethnonyms are generally formulated through suffixation; by applying an -n to people of Austria, their nationality is known as Austrian. In English, in many cases, the word for the dominant language of a group is identical to their English-language ethnonym; the French speak French, the Germans speak German. This is sometimes erroneously overgeneralized; it may be assumed that people from India speak "Indian",^[6] despite there being no language which is called by that name.

Generally, any group of people may have numerous ethnonyms asociated with the political affiliation with a state or a province, with geographical landmark, with the language, or another distinct feature. Ethnonym may be a compound word releted to origin or usage, polito-ethnonym indicates that name originated from the political affiliation, like Belgian for inhabitants of Belgium that have their own endonyms; topo-ethnonym refers to the ethnonym derived from the name of the locality, like Uralians for the inhabitants of the geographical area near the Ural mountains that have their own distinct endonyms. Classical geographers frequently used topo-ethnonyms (demonyms) as substitute for ethnonyms in general descriptions or for unknown endonyms. Compound teminology is widely used in professional literature to discriminate semantics of the terms.

See also[link]

• -onym
• Diaspora studies
• demonym
• exonym
• Hyphenated American
• Statistext

References[link]

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009)

Modu Chanyu
Xiongnu Chanyu
Statue of an imagined depiction of Modu Chanyu in Söğüt, Turkey
Reign	209–174 BCE
Born	c. 234 BCE
Birthplace	Modern-day Mongolia
Died	174 BCE
Predecessor	Touman
Successor	Laoshang
Dynasty	Maodun
Father	Touman

Modu Chanyu (simplified Chinese: 冒顿单于; traditional Chinese: 冒頓單于; pinyin: Mòdú Chányú, sometimes also transcribed Modun and Maodun) was born c. 234 BCE was the fourth known emperor^[1] and founder of the Xiongnu Empire after he killed his father in 209 BCE. The years of his rule were 209 BCE to 174 BCE. He was a military leader under his father Touman, and later the Chanyu and king of the Xiongnu, centered in modern day Mongolia.^[1]

Once he had secured the throne, he established a powerful Xiongnu Empire by successfully unifying the tribes of the Mongolian steppes and hence posed an imminent threat to the Chinese Qin Dynasty. His Xiongnu Empire was one of the largest of his time – the eastern border stretched as far as the Liao River, the western borders of the empire reached the Pamir Mountains whilst the northern border reached Lake Baikal.^[2]

He was succeeded by his son Laoshang.

Name[link]

Several scholars have suggested that the reconstructed Middle Chinese pronunciation of mòdùn (冒頓) is /mək-twən/.^[3] Ultimately, the Old Chinese pronunciation might have represented the pronunciation of the foreign word baγtur, related to the Central Asian word baγatur (meaning "hero").^[3] The etymology of the word is unknown, though the first syllable may be the Iranian word baγ (meaning "god" or "lord"), an element in many later Central Asian titles."^[3] The original origin may not be Iranian, as suggested by Clauson,^[4] who claims it an original Xiongnu name/title.

Origins and rise to power[link]

The only details of his early years is recorded in chapter 110 of the Shiji,^[5] but, although they are based on history, they seem to contain^{[dubious – discuss]} some legendary elements.^[6]

He was the eldest son of Touman, the leader of the Xiongnu at the time. Since his childhood, Modu was well-known for his outstanding courage and valor. He was so valourous that he was regarded as one of the most heroic men in the realm. However, a beauty called E'shi was the favourite wife of Touman and he decided to raise her son to be his successor. Touman's new wife had wanted to kill Modu so she adopted a cruel plot to kill Modu by another person's hands: his father sent him to the Yuezhi, a different tribe of peoples, as a hostage and then he waged wars against them, to make Modu the victim. Fortunately, Modu had sensed something suspicious so he pretended to be seriously sick when he was staying in the Yuezhi camp. His guards then slackened their guard. In the evening when Touman was massing his troops to attack the Yuezhi tribe, Modu killed the guards, stole the Yuezhi's precious horse and fled. To avoid the pursuit of the Yuezhi tribe and a surprise attack by his father, Modu disguised himself and was able to return.

Later for his bravery his father gave him a tumen of soldiers. He controlled his 10,000 men strictly, and trained them hard every day for battle. According to Sima Qian he had some arrows made that whistled in flight and trained his men to shoot at anything his whistling arrow struck. One day he shot at one of his best horses and executed any man that failed to follow suit. Later, when on a hunting expedition with his father, he shot a whistling arrow at his father, as did all his men.

Also his father's wife and the rival heir were executed. After this he gained the leadership of all the tribes his father had controlled and he was crowned as the new Xiongnu ruler. He disciplined all the tribes for warfare and to follow his every command. He was respected by his men, and none would challenge his authority. After his army was ready for war, he began his conquests.

The rise of the Xiongnu Empire[link]

Domain and influence of Xiongnu under Modu at the start of his rule.

First he marched on the Donghu, the Xiongnu’s eastern neighbours, and brought them under his rule in 208 BC. After his Donghu campaign (the Donghu split into Xianbei and Wuhuan); he defeated the Dingling and other peoples living in Northern Mongolia and finally he brought the Yuezhi under his rule in 203 BC. After these conquests all Xiongnu lords submitted to him.

With these victories, he was able to gain control of the important trade routes, which later supplied the Xiongnu with a large income. He later (in 200 BC) fought a three-year campaign with the Han Dynasty of China, and decisively defeated the Han ruler Gaodi (by shrewdly trapping him and his forces), forcing him to pay humiliating yearly tributes to the Xiongnu: when Emperor Gao of Han Dynasty launched a military offensive against him, Modu (with 40,000 soldiers) lured the Han army into a trap and ambushed the emperor reputedly with 300,000 elite Xiongnu cavalry, and encircled them for seven days at Baideng. The emperor was cut off from supplies and reinforcements. The siege was only relieved when the Han royal court sent spies to bribe Modu's wife. The result of this campaign resulted in Han China resorting to the humiliating "marriage alliance" strategy with Xiongnu for the next seventy years.

Modu never tried to conquer China completely, because he thought that a foreign dynasty could not rule such a vast country for a long time. After his Chinese campaign, Modu forced the Yuezhi and the Wusun to become vassals of the Xiongnu.

During his reign, many peoples were brought under Xiongnu rule. He united all of them under one empire, all the nomad horse archer tribes of the steppes. Apart from his nomadic subjects, Modu also made the oasis city-states of the Tarim Basin swear fealty to him. His organizations in both military and administration were later used by many other Central Asian peoples and states.

Under his rule, he launched 26 major war campaigns to conquer 26 kingdoms, and became greatly feared throughout Asia, even in the mighty Han Empire. He was a great warrior and a master tactician and was nearly undefeated in his battles against many empires including the Han Dynasty.

Later legends[link]

Christopher I. Beckwith^[7] has pointed out that the story of the young Modu resembles a widespread class of folk tales in which a young hero is abandoned, goes on a quest, proves his worth, gains a group of trusted companions, returns to his home country, slays a powerful figure and becomes a king.

The name of Maodun has been associated with Oguz Kagan, an epic ancestor of the Turkic people. The reason for that is a striking similarity of the Oguz-Kagan biography in the Turko-Persian manuscripts (Rashid al-Din, Hondemir, Abulgazi) with the Maodun biography in the Chinese sources (feud between the father and son and murder of the former, the direction and sequence of conquests, etc.), which was first noticed by N.Ya. Bichurin (Collection of information, pp. 56–57)".^[8][9]

Another suggestion connects it with the name of the Magyar (Mad'ar) royal tribe of the Hungarians (匈牙利) and with their distant relatives Mators, now extinct.^[10] He has been linked with the Dulo known from the Nominalia of the Bulgarian khans^[11] and this, in the form *Duh-klah Tuqi, with the Hungarian/Magyar Gyula (D'ula) clan.^[12] It has been suggested that his name, as Bixtun or Beztur, appears in the genealogy as the ancestor of Attila the Hun.

See also[link]

• Sino-Xiongnu War
• Jin Midi
• Ban Chao
• Oghuz Khan

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

• Watson, Burton. (1993). Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. Translated by Burton Watson. Revised Edition. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-08167-7.
• Hulsewé, A. F. P. and Loewe, M. A. N. (1979). China in Central Asia: The Early Stage 125 BC – AD 23: an annotated translation of chapters 61 and 96 of the History of the Former Han Dynasty. E. J. Brill, Leiden. ISBN 90-04-05884-2.
• Beckwith, Christopher I. (2009): Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-13589-2.
• Yap, Joseph P. (2009). Wars With The Xiongnu, A Translation from Zizhi tongjian, pp. 67–107. AuthorHouse, Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A. ISBN 978-1-4490-0604-4.
• Clauson, Sir Gerard (1962): Turkish and Mongolian Studies. The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

External links[link]

• Baidu Entry on Batur Tengriqut
• All Empires: The Xiongnu Empire
• The Xiongnu – China Knowledge site