Linguistic Affiliation
For some time it was an accepted consensus that the Wusun spoke a Turkic language. In 1896, after examining a mass of historical-ethnographical material, the outstanding historian and Türkic ethnographer N.A. Aristov posited that the ancient Usun were Türkic-speakers, and erroneously identified them as a western branch of the Enisei Kirgizes. In 1902 Aristov's theory was confirmed by a Japanese Turkologist K.Shiratori, who deciphered a number of Usun titles and names recorded in the Chinese dynastic history, the Hanshu. Other Sinologists – F. Hirt, O. Franke, J. Marquart, Yu. Zuev and in part P. Pelliot – concurred with this conclusion. All Usun words that could be deciphered by now seemed to have obviously Turkic character. This threw in doubt theretofore popular theory on the Turkification of the Usuns at the end of the 1st century BC by the Chuban.
The Ancient Chinese transmitted the title of the leader of the Usun tribal union by means of the hieroglyphs kunmo, kunmi, and kunbyan. An equivalent of the term Kunmo (Kün-bag, "Kün Prince") was the title of Ushan-mu (Ushin-Bag, "Usun Prince") assumed in 53 BC by the separatist Usun prince, Utszutu (Ujutu). K.Siratori determined that the term kunmo was a Chinese transmission of the title Khan-beg (or Khan-biy). J.Marquart offered a form Kun-beg. This confirmed with P.Pelliot's study of dialectal specifics of the language of the ancient Usuns. With the help of B.Karlgren's works and L.Bazen research in the Tungusic Xianbei language the reading: Kun-mo = Kün-bag is decoded as Prince of Kün (people, tribe). Several scholars, including the Chinese student Han Rulin and also G. Vambery, A. Scherbak, P. Budberg, L. Bazin and V.P. Yudin, noted that the Usun king's name Fu-li, as reported in Chinese sources and translated as "wolf", resembles the Proto-Turkic böri = 'wolf'.
This theory is, however, contradicted by several leading Turkologists, including Peter B. Golden and Carter Vaughn Findley, who point out that none of the specified words are actually Turkic in origin. Findley notes that the term böri is more likely derived from one of the Indo-European Iranian languages of Central Asia, while the title beg is certainly derived from the Sogdian baga ("lord"), a cognate of Middle Persian baγ (as used by the rulers of the Sassanid Empire), as well as Sanskrit bhaga and Russian bog.
It is evident from Chinese sources that the Sai (Saka) and Yuezhi (Tokharians) were among the people of the Usun state Zhetysu, Most likely the Usun formed a multi-lingual confederation of nomadic steppe tribes, very similar to other steppe confederacies such as the Chuban and the Scythians.
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