Dear Mr. Gerhard Burian,

Thank you for sharing your very interesting research. I understand

it is your own last name that you want to trace. Unfortunately, I was not

able to find BURIAN in my sources, but I will try to tell you my own view

regarding this name. To me this name could be a variation of the following

Turkic words:

BURAN : storm, whirlwind with rain or snow; strong north wind BORA, a

strong twister wind. Thus BURIAN <> BORA-AN meaning a 'Bora from Sky'.

BURIAN : <> BORI-AN (BORIAN) meaning 'Wolf-Sky' where BORI = wolf and AN =

sky. It could be a form of the ancient Turkic 'Gök-Böri' (Blue wolf).

Gök-Böri was the national logo of the ancient Turks in Asia. In this case,

the name is related to the ancient Turanian One-Sky-Father (God)

Tanri/Tengri.

BURIAN : < BUR-I-AN < BIR-U-AN (BIR-O-AN). In this case, I would think

that the original word BIR-U-AN (BIRUAN) has gone through a slight change

by having the vowels I and U changing positions, thus BIR-U-AN becoming

BUR-I-AN. If this is the case, then the name would mean: "ONE-THAT-SKY"

which is an ancient Turkic descriptive phrase defining the Turanian

'One-Sky-Father' Tanri (God). Many such descriptive names of God exist in

Turkic languages. I was told once by an Hungarian friend that as the

Hungarians were being converted into Christianity, a lot of words in their

language was also anagrammatized. This could be one of those cases.

Particularly, since BIR-U-AN refers to ancient Turkic Sky-God, it would not

escape the manupulations of some religious personel. You say that you have

traced the name BURIAN at around 1411 in Hungary. I would think that this

information is meaningfull. If this last case is the correct one, then the

history of the name could go back even further to B.C. times in the

Balkans, of which Hungary is a part.

I did not know that Erzincan had a plaf named BURYAN plaf. Because of your

search I learned something from you also. The BURYAN tower in Kirgizistan

sounds also interesting. Because, in Central Asian culture, toweres

generally have some relations with the Sky-God. If the BURYAN tower has

some religious purpose, then we could feel much more comfortable regarding

my suggestion that name has the etymology of BIR-U-AN (BIRUAN), in which

case BURYAN would be a variation from BIRUAN.

Finally, the name BURYAT of the Mongols would also fit the BIR-U-AN

(BIRUAN) case, because, to my knowledge, in ancient times, all Turanian

peoples took names that were related to the name of the

One-Sky-Father(God). Thus the name BURYAT could be from BIR-U-ATA meaning

"One-That-Father' where Turkic 'ata' is 'father'. Of course the term

'father' refers to the name of God.

This is all that I can tell you at this time. Please tell me your views

regarding this bit of information. Good luck and best wishes. Are you

related to Magyars?

Polat Kaya

Dear Gerhard Burian,

The information you give regarding your ancestors is quite

enlightening. Their surname being changed from BURGYAN to BURIAN makes me

think that I was right in my first suggestion. To me the name BURGYAN in

ancient Turkic languages, and in ancient Hungarian as well, would consist

of the etymology of BUR-G-Y-AN' < 'BIR-AGA-U-AN' meaning "ONE-LORD-THAT-SKY

[Man]" referring to the Sky-God the Tengri/Tanri of Turks and all

Turanians. Additionally, the name BURJAN would be like Turkic BIRCAN where

CAN is like 'John' in English. In Turkish, BIR-Can (JAN) would mean

"One-Soul', 'One-Life', 'One-Saint' and finally 'One-God'. In terms of

"One-God" it becomes the same as "ONE-LORD-THAT-SKY [Man]", i.e., the

Sky-God.

The name BURIAN and/or BURYAN meaning 'meaning someone who doesn't take

care of his land' is not conducive to be taken as a name by people. Yet,

if BURJAN OR BURGYAN is the name of God, then it would be an exalting name

and hence it is conducive to be taken as name by people. In ancient times

many names were Turkic origin and also descriptive of God's attributes so

that they would be taken as exalting names for people. In my view BURGYAN

and BURYAN are such names.

You say: " I know that the Magyars have been living before 950 AD in the

northern Caucasian area and that they had contacts to Turkic people." Yes,

you are right. Magyars not only had contact with Turks, but were Turkic

peoples. Europeans do not like to admit this fact readily. But there are

many Magyars who know this fact and think that it is correct. Many of the

Hungarians were the descendants of Atilla the Hun (The Hun Turks) empire.

The Arpads dynasty in Hungaria were Turks. Only thing that separated

Magyars from the Turks was their religion that they adopted.

Therefore two groups, one being Christian and the other being Islam, were

alienated from each other in the past. However, present day Turks and

Hungarians have extremely good relationship with each other. To us Turks,

Hungarians are Turkic speaking Turanian (Tur/Turk) people and are our

cousins. The Ottomans and Hungarians had quite a few years of togetherness.

Regarding the BURYAN pilaf, I have not been able to locate it yet. I still

think that It must be the name of a place where that type of Turkish pilaf

is made.

I have no comment on your finding that "in Armenian language BORIAN

describes a family with blond hair and blue eyes."

Anyway see if you can make any sense out of what I have said. Since you

asked me, I tried to answer as best as I could. Good luck and all the

best.

Polat Kaya