What were they?

>>1037389
Ugly

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>>1037422
Proofs?

Seriously now, anything we have that could enlighten us on their origins?

They came from the stars and then they returned there on their horses once their work on Earth was done.

Oghur Turkic akin to modern day Chuvash

Could have even been germanic. Goths ruled the Pontic Steppe before the huns came

LETS GET DOWN TO BUSINESS

>>1037389
They were a group of their own, dating back before the separation of Mongols from Turks and Uralic peoples. Think about it, the Cumans and Pechenegs came to Europe 800 years after the Huns, so you may consider Attila's tribe as part of an ethnic common ancestors of some Turanic peoples of the 10th and 11th centuries...

>>1037389
When you say Huns, do you refer to the ruling tribe, or the whole people? The answer to second is simple: they were a confederation of various steppe people together with the natives they conquered.
For the first question, I would say the closest people to them were Oghur Turkics too, like >>1038971 said, but I don't think this is certain at the moment.

There was no nation-state before 19th century. Period.

>>1039022
We could determine what they were based on their language. Turkic folk speak a Turkic tongue. Mongolic folk speak a Mongolic tongue. Uralic folk speak an Uralic tongue. Once a folk abandon their culture, they have no right to say that they are now what they once were.

>>1039514
Cultures did.

>>1039009
They took on the tongue of the Goths in the western part of their empire iirc.

>>1039514
There were no nation-states, but there were nations.

>Holy shadows of the dead, I’m not to blame for your cruel and bitter fate, but the accursed rivalry which brought sister nations and brother people, to fight one another. I do not feel happy for this victory of mine. On the contrary, I would be glad, brothers, if I had all of you standing here next to me, since we are united by the same language, the same blood and the same visions.
Addressing the dead Hellenes (the Athenean and Thebean Greeks) of the Battle of Chaeronea, as quoted in Historiae Alexandri Magni by Quintus Curtius Rufus.