Hephthalite

English

Alternative forms

Ephthalite

Noun

Hephthalite (plural Hephthalites)

(historical) Any of a people who comprised a nomadic confederation in Central Asia during the 5th–6th centuries CE.
- 1999, B. A. Litvinsky, 6: The Hephthalite Empire, B. A. Litvinsky, Zhang Guang-Da, R. Shabani Samghabardi (editors), History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Volume III: The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, page 135,
  From the mid-fifth to the mid-sixth century Central Asia was ruled by the Hephthalite tribes. There are many gaps in our knowledge of the origin of the Hephthalites and the formation of their state, the first difficulty being that they are given different names in the various sources.
- 2007, Adesh Katariya, Ancient History of Central Asia: Yuezhi origin Peoples, Adesh Katariya, page 158,
  F. Altheim assumes a Turkic origin for the Hephthalites. In his own studies he affirms, that the Hephthalites were Turkic-speaking Altaic tribes. The ethnonym "Hephtal" is drawn from the Turkic root: yap, meaning to do, to make, plus a^[sic] verbal-nominal suffixes t and l. The reconstructed word is yap-t-il, which means "creator, maker" ("Schaffender, Tatiger"). The language of the Hephthalites was Turkic and the presence of the Iranian words is explained by elements that penetrated the Hephthalites language from the subordinated Iranian-speaking population.
- 2009, Barbara A. West, "Hephthalites", article in Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania, Infobase Publishing (Facts on File), page 276,
  The Hephthalites probably began their history as a nomadic people, moving across the Asian steppes when political, military, or social situations favored their movement.

Synonyms

White Hun

Translations

any of a Central Asian people who were in nomadic confederation during the 5th-6th centuries

Chinese:
Mandarin: 嚈噠 (zh), 嚈哒 (zh) (Yèdá), 挹怛 (Yìdá), 挹闐, 挹阗 (Yìtián)
Finnish: hefthaliitti
Italian: unno bianco m, eftalito m
Swedish: heftalit c