The Huns Had No Written Language
Despite the fact that the Huns were able to conquer and control a large area of land and build substantial structures, they had no written communication. This makes it very hard to know what life was like for the Huns and how they really lived. The only written descriptions about the Huns come from Roman and Chinese sources, both of which had a great distaste for the Huns. Huns were often referred to as barbarians that were born from demons and emerged from the wilderness to destroy all that was in their path. So any description of how the Huns lived from these sources is very unreliable.
What makes the lack of a written language particularly startling among the Huns is that there was no unified spoken language either. There are varying accounts of the language spoken by the Huns with many believing it to have Turkish and Mongolian roots. But there is evidence of a distinct Hunnic language that emerged within the Hunnic Empire. Without a written language, there is little known about the Hunnic language beyond the proper names that were referenced in the Roman and Chinese accounts. Even with the development of this Hunnic language it was not a unifying language. There are accounts of Attila speaking a language that was different from the Hunnic language that developed among his people. The distinct language barrier makes Attila’s ability to control and lead his army even more astonishing.
There are some who believe that the Hunnic written language exists but it yet to be discovered. One report of the Huns states that names of prisoners were read aloud from a list, which would imply some form of writing. Another account from the 5th century tells of a Bishop who visited the Huns and returned with books written in the Hunnic language. There have been some suggestions that the Huns had a sort of runic language but there is no substantial proof to this claim yet.