The present article deals with two recently excavated Xiōng-nú inscriptions from the Xiōng-nú capital Lóng Chéng in Mongolia. Although these inscriptions are in Chinese, they contain the title of the Xiōng-nú supreme ruler 單于 *darƣwa, which is attested for the first time outside of Chinese dynastic chronicles. On the basis of this fact, I propose a hypothesis that Xiōng-nú used Chinese characters to transcribe phonographically their own language.
