Tuhsi were considered remnants of theTürgesh people.[2][3] TurkologistYury Zuev noted a nation (國) named 觸水昆 (Mand.Chùshuǐkūn < *t͡ɕʰɨok̚-ɕˠiuɪX-kuən) inJiu Tangshu,[4][5] so he reconstructed 觸水昆 as *Tuhsi-kun; however, Nurlan Kenzheakhmet noted thatTongdian's authors[6] transcribed the same ethnonym as 觸木昆 (Mand.Chùmùkūn < *t͡ɕʰɨok̚-muk̚-kuən), the name of aDuoluTurk tribe, also transcribed as 處木昆 (Chǔmùkūn <t͡ɕʰɨʌX-muk̚-kuən).[7]
It's unclear whether the ethnonym Tuhsi is of Turkic origin.[8] Tuhsi may be connected toCuman clan Toqsoba, ifToqsoba did not derive fromCommon Turkictoquz "nine" andoba "clan".[a][10] Hungarian orientalist Karoly Czeglédy compares the name Tuhsi to that of a medieval Eastern Iranian-speakingAlano-As[11][12] tribeDuχs-Aṣ, located in the NorthCaucasus byibn Rustah, and proposes that Tuhsis had been of Iranian-speakingAs origins.[13][b]
By the 11-century, Tuhsis led a nomadic lifestyle amongst theTurkic peoples and on the steppe, possessed a Turkic culture, and their language belonged to theTurkic language family. According toKarakhanid lexicographerMahmud of Kashgar, contemporary Tuhsis were Turkic-speakingmonoglots; after carefully analyzing linguistic materials collected from Tuhsi dialect, he praised the Tuhsi Turkic dialect, among others, for being "pure" and "most correct", both in terms of accent and vocabulary.[15]
^Pylypchuk, Ya. "Turks and Muslims: From Confrontation to Conversion to Islam (End of VII century - Beginning of XI Century)" inUDK 94 (4): 95 (4). In Ukrainian
^Zuev Yu.A., "Horse Tamgas from Vassal Princedoms (translation of Chinese composition "Tanghuiyao" of the 8th to 10th centuries)", Kazakh SSR Academy of Sciences, Alma-Ata, 1960, pp. 124 (in Russian).
^Kenzheakhmet, Nurlan (2014). ""Ethnonyms and Toponyms" of the Old Turkic Inscriptions in Chinese sources".Studia et Documenta Turcologica.II: 296, 304.
^Minorsky, V. "Commentary" on "§17. The Tukhs" inḤudūd al'Ālam. Translated and Explained by V. Minorsky. p. 300
^"On the Ethnic Names of the Cumans of Hungary". In:Kinship in the Altaic World. Proceedings of the 48th PIAC, Moscow 10–15 July 2005. Ed. by E. V. Boikova and R. B. Rybakov. Harrasowitz Verlagh, Wiesbaden 2006, p. 50 of pp. 43–54.
^Golden, Peter B. "The Polovci Dikii" inHarvard Ukrainian Studies Vol. 3/4, Part 1. pp. 296-309
^Abaev, V.I.; Bailey, H.W. (1985)."ALANS". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. I, Fasc. 8. pp. 801–803
^Maħmūd al-Kašğari. "Dīwān Luğāt al-Turk". Edited & translated byRobert Dankoff in collaboration with James Kelly. InSources of Oriental Languages and Literature. (1982). Part I. p. 82-84
