By Late Antiquity, the Aşıŋa people were likely speaking a Turkic language; however, it is also likely that they intermingled with or were heavily influenced by an Indo-Iranic-speaking people. As their ethnonym, Aşıŋa, can be derived from Sanskrit äşvin (अश्विन्) *ɐɕ.ʋín or “possessor of horses” and the Turkic occupational derivational suffix *-ɣɑː. In the Late Han Chinese language their ethnonym was transcribed as 烏孫 *ʔɑ-suən. While the use of 烏 *ʔɑ does not necessitate back vowels, the diphthong *uə is likely an approximation of Turkic *ɨ; hence, *ɑʃɨŋɑ. Similar approximations for this sound are well attested in Middle Chinese transcriptions of Turkic words. And while Late Han and Middle Chinese *i can approximate Turkic *ɨ, there is no evidence that *uə can approximate *i.