sb. and a. [f. Pers. Turān, name of the realm beyond the Oxus, used by Firdusi c. 1000. in opposition to Irān or Persia.
In 1840 Pott (Ersch & Gruber, II. xviii. 1) contrasts Turan with arisch (Aryan).]. A. sb.
1. A member of any of the races speaking the ‘Turanian’ or Ural-Altaic languages: see B.
1777. J. Richardson, Dict. Persian, etc., Dissert. p. xxx/2. The Tartars, Scythians, or Turanians.
1854. Bunsen, Christianity, IV. 26. The native religion of the Turanian is Shamanism.
1861. Hulme, trans. Moquin-Tandon, I. v. 32. Turanians: Physiognomy: Mongol. Language: Agglutinate. Area: Mongolia, Mantshuria.
1888. G. Smith, S. Hislop, vii. (1889), 182. Brahmanism assimilated to itself the cults of the Turanians and Sudras.
2. The so-called Turanian languages collectively.
1908. Christian Express, 1 April, 59/1. He states that in Bantu, as in Turanian (by-the-bye, we would be thankful to know what is Turanian) there is a regular phonetic interchange k = p = b = f = d!
B. adj.
1. Applied loosely to a group or supposed ‘family’ of languages, originally applied to all or nearly all of Asiatic origin that are neither Aryan nor Semitic; in later use nearly = URAL-ALTAIC.
1854. Bunsen, Christianity, VI. 64. All the languages of Asia and Europe which are neither Semitic nor Arian. I ventured in 1847 to write all these under the name Turanian.
1860. Farrar, Orig. Lang., 199. Languages which belong to neither of these two … families have been classed together under the name of the Turanian, Nomadic, or Allophylian family. Ibid. (1865), Chapt. Lang., 29. Various sporadic families, which some would call Turanian.
1892. Whitney, Max Müller, 49. The old ‘Turanian’ aggregation, which … has for a generation been a stumbling-block in the way of science.
2. Applied to the peoples speaking these languages.
1859. Max Müller, Sc. Lang. (1861), I. 276. The name Turanian is used in opposition to Aryan and is applied to the nomadic races of Asia as opposed to the agricultural or Aryan races.
1874. Bancroft, Footpr. Time, i. 30. Turanian means ‘outside,’ or ‘barbarian.’
1890. J. G. Frazer, Gold. Bough (1913), I. iv. 179. The Magyars belong to the great Turanian family of mankind.
