Dungan language

Dungan language
Dungan language
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	東干語
Simplified Chinese	东干语
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Dōnggānyǔ
Wade–Giles	Tung1kan1 yü3
IPA	[tʊ́ŋ.kán ỳ]
Dunganese name
Dungan	Хуэйзў йүян
Hanzi	回族語言
Uyghur name
Uyghur	تۇڭگان تىلى‎
Russian name
Russian	Дунганский язык
Romanization	Dunganskij jazyk
Kyrgyz name
Kyrgyz	Дунган тили; دۇنعان تىلى; Dungan tili
Kazakh name
Kazakh	Дүнген тілі; دۇنگەن تىلى; Düngen tılı

Dungan
Dungan
Хуэйзў йүян
	Books in Dungan or about Dungan (in Russian or English). Most of them were published in Frunze, Kirghiz SSR in the 1970s and 80s
Pronunciation	Dungan pronunciation: [xwɛ̌jt͡sû ʝŷʝɛ̃̌]
Native to	Central Asia
Region	Chu Valley (Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan), Altai Krai, Saratov Oblast (Rovensky District) (Russia), Fergana Valley (Uzbekistan)
Ethnicity	Dungan
Native speakers	145,000 (2009–2021)
Language family	Sino-Tibetan Sinitic Chinese Mandarin Central Plains Mandarin Dungan; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Dungan alphabets (Cyrillic, formerly Latin and Arabic)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	dng
Glottolog	dung1253
ELP	Dungan
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Dungan (/ˈdʊŋ.ɡɑːn/ or /ˈdʌŋ.ɡən/) is a Sinitic language^[1] spoken primarily in the Chu Valley of southeastern Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan. It is the native language of the Dungan people, a Hui subgroup that fled Qing China in the 19th century. It evolved from the Central Plains Mandarin varieties spoken in Gansu and Shaanxi. It is the only Sino-Tibetan language to be officially written in the Cyrillic script. In addition, the Dungan language contains loanwords and archaisms not found in other modern varieties of Mandarin.

History

The Dungan people of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (with smaller groups living in other post-Soviet states) are the descendants of several groups of the Hui people that migrated to the region in the 1870s and the 1880s after the defeat of the Dungan revolt in Northwestern China. The Hui of Northwestern China (often referred to as "Dungans" or "Tungani" by 19th-century western writers, as well as by some Turkic peoples) would normally speak the same Mandarin dialect as the Han people in the same area^[2] (or in the area from which the particular Hui community had been resettled). At the same time, due to their unique history, their speech would be rich in Islamic or Islam-influenced terminology, based on loanwords from Arabic, Persian and Turkic languages, as well as translations of them into Chinese.^[2] The Hui traders in the bazaars would be able to use Arabic or Persian numbers when talking between themselves, to keep their communications secret from Han bystanders.^[3] While not constituting a separate language, these words, phrases and turns of speech, known as Huihui hua (回回話, "Hui speech"), served as markers of group identity.^[2] As early 20th century travellers in Northwestern China would note, "the Mohammedan Chinese have to some extent a vocabulary and always a style and manner of speech, all their own".^[4]

As the Dungans in the Russian Empire — and even more so in the Soviet Union — were isolated from China, their language experienced significant influence from the Russian and the Turkic languages of their neighbors.

With the foundation of the Soviet Union, researchers established alphabets and a literary (standard) form of Dungan.^[5] Dungan's first alphabet was Latinized. Publications began in 1929, ceased shortly before WWII, and continued in 1955 after the development of a new Cyrillized alphabet.^[6]

Intelligentsia have published school textbooks, a three volume Russian–Dungan dictionary (14,000 words), a Dungan–Russian dictionary, linguistic monographs on the language, collections of folk tales, original and translated fiction, and poetry. Usual print runs were no more than a few hundred copies. Yakub Dzhon wrote the first book, a language primer, in 1929.^[7]^[6] The first Dungan-language newspaper, Huimin bao, was established in 1932; it continues publication today in weekly form. By the count of the chief librarian of the National Library of Russia's bibliography, nearly 400 Dungan books have been published.^[6] Publications have become less common after the end of the Soviet Union.^[8]

Free from education in the literary Chinese idiom, literary Dungan is much closer to the everyday language.^[9]^[10] This makes Dungan poetry especially unique in the history of Chinese poetry^[10] (if it is to be counted). Literary works, most notably those of Dungan poet Yasyr Shivaza, have been translated into Russian, Standard Chinese and a number of other languages, with print runs in some of them been much higher than in the original Dungan. English translations of some of them, along with the original Dungan text, are available in Rimsky-Korsakoff Dyer (1991).

Dungan-language television programs and radio broadcasts appeared in the 90s following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and weakening of the Russian language's status;^[11] however, by one 2012 report, these were terminated and moribund, respectively.^[12]

Geographical distribution

Dungan is spoken primarily in Kyrgyzstan, with speakers in Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as well.

According to the Soviet census statistics from 1970 to 1989, the Dungan maintained the use of their ethnic language much more successfully than other minority ethnic groups in Central Asia; however, in the post-Soviet period, the proportion of Dungans speaking the Dungan language as their native language appears to have fallen sharply.

**Dungan speakers by population**
Year	Dungan L1	Russian L2	Total Dungan population	Source
1970	36,445 (94.3%)	18,566 (48.0%)	38,644	Soviet census
1979	49,020 (94.8%)	32,429 (62.7%)	51,694	Soviet census
1989	65,698 (94.8%)	49,075 (70.8%)	69,323	Soviet census
2001	41,400 (41.4%)	N/A	100,000	Ethnologue

Dialects

Dungan is composed of two dialects. The Gansu dialect, or "Bishkek group", is concentrated in Kyrgyzstan. The Shaanxi dialect, or "Tokmak group", is concentrated in Kazakhstan.^[13]^[5] There are minor differences in vocabulary and phonology. For example, the Gansu first-person pronoun is вә 我, while the Shaanxi first-person pronoun is ңә 我.^[13]^[14] However, in Kazakhstan, when speakers of different dialects meet, they tend to switch to Russian.^[8]

Standard (literary; written) Dungan is based largely on the Gansu dialect^[13]^[5] and is purer than the spoken language.^[8]

The Dungan of Osh have lost most of their language.^[13]

Phonology

In basic structure and vocabulary, the Dungan language is not very different from Mandarin Chinese, specifically a variety of Zhongyuan Mandarin (not Lan-Yin Mandarin) spoken in the southern part of the province of Gansu and the western part of the valley of Guanzhong in the province of Shaanxi. Like other Chinese varieties, Dungan is tonal. There are two main dialects, one with 4 tones and the other, considered standard, with 3 tones in the final position in phonetic words and 4 tones in the nonfinal position.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Dungan
		Labial	Alveolar	Retroflex	(Alveolo-) palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n			ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p	t			k
Stop	aspirated	pʰ	tʰ			kʰ
Affricate	voiceless	(p̪͡f)^[15]	t͡s	ʈ͡ʂ	t͡ɕ
Affricate	aspirated	(p̪͡fʰ)^[15]	t͡sʰ	ʈ͡ʂʰ	t͡ɕʰ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʂ	ɕ	x
Fricative	voiced	v		ʐ	ʝ
Approximant		v	l	ɻ

Consonant table with orthography
Cyrillic	IPA	Cyrillic	IPA	Cyrillic	IPA	Cyrillic	IPA	Cyrillic	IPA
Unaspirated		Aspirated		Nasal		Fricative		Voiced
б	[p]	п	[pʰ]	м	[m]	ф	[f]	в	[v], [w]
д	[t]	т	[tʰ]	н	[n]			л	[l]
з	[t͡s]	ц	[t͡sʰ]			с	[s]	р	[ɻ]
җ	[t͡ʂ]	ч	[t͡ʂʰ]			ш	[ʂ]	ж	[ʐ]
җ	[t͡ɕ]	ч	[t͡ɕʰ]			щ	[ɕ]	й	[ʝ]
г	[k]	к	[kʰ]	ң	[ŋ]	х	[x]

/ŋ/ can also be heard as a voiced fricative [ɣ] among other Gansu dialects.
/v/ can be heard as [w] in the Şanşi dialects.
The labialized retroflex fricatives and affricates [ʂʷ][tʂʷ][tʂʰʷ] can be respectively pronounced as the labiodental [f][p̪͡f][p̪͡fʰ]. This phenomenon can be observed through the word фə 說, with the initial being [f], as opposed to [ʂʷ] in Old Mandarin. Svetlana Rimsky-Korsakoff: "There is a tendency in some speakers for the retroflexed alveo-palatals to be pronounced as rounded labio-dental affricates. Hashimoto has traced this phenomenon in other North-west dialects."^[15] Hashimoto: "A theoretically more interesting point here is that Chinese palatals /č, č’, etc./ go to [Dungan] labials [pf, pf’, etc.]"^[16]

Vowels

Medial	Nucleus
Medial	∅	a	ɤ	ɛ	ɔ	ʊ	əj	∅̃	æ̃	ɔ̃	ʊ̃	ɚ
∅	ɨ	a	ɤ	ɛ	ɔ	ʊ	əj	ə̃	æ̃	ɔ̃	ʊ̃	ɚ
j	i	ja	je		jɔ	jɤw		ĩ	jɛ̃	jɔ̃
w	u	wa	wɤ	wɛ	wɔ	u	wəj		wæ̃	wɔ̃	ũ
ɥ	y	ɥa	ɥe					ỹ	yɛ̃

Finals
Cyrillic	IPA	Cyrillic	IPA	Cyrillic	IPA	Cyrillic	IPA
ы	[ɨ]	и	[i], [ɪi]	ў	[u], [ɤu]	ү	[y]
а	[a]	я	[ja]	уа	[wa]	үa	[ɥa]
ә	[ɤ]	е	[je]	уә	[wɤ]	үә	[ɥe]
э	[ɛ]			уэ	[wɛ]
о	[ɔ]	ё	[jɔ]	уэй	[wəj]
ый	[əj]			уй	[wəj]
у	[ʊ]	ю	[jɤw]	уо	[wɔ]
ан	[æ̃]	ян	[jɛ̃]	уан	[wæ̃]	үан	[yɛ̃]
он	[ɔ̃]	ён	[jɔ̃]	уон	[wɔ̃]
ын	[ə̃~ɤ̃]	ин	[ĩ], [ɪĩ]	ун	[ʊ̃], [ʊə̃]	үн	[ỹ]
эр	[ɚ~əɻ]			ўн	[ũ]

/ə˞/ can be heard as [ɯ˞] in Kyrgyzstan.
With х-, -уй is respelled as -уэй^[17] to avoid homography with the Russian-language vulgarity.^[18] This is the same treatment as in the Palladius system.

In addition to the above table, there are rhotacised vowels, as well as some finals only seen in loanwords from Russian, Arabic, Kyrgyz, etc.

Finals beginning with (й)и (including я, е, ё, ю) or (й)ү are also valid syllables. Dungan is characterized by a paucity of zero-initial syllables otherwise, with zero initial being limited to the rhotacized эр, the prefix а-, and to interjections.^[19]

Tones

Tonal comparison between Dungan and Mandarin
Tone name		Dungan example		Gansu-Dungan		Shaanxi-Dungan		Notes	Standard Chinese tone number	Chinese character		Standard Chinese
Tone name		Orthography	IPA	Pitch pattern	Tone contour	Pitch pattern	Tone contour	Notes	Standard Chinese tone number	Orthography	IPA	Pitch pattern	Tone contour
ту йигы (I) шынйин^[20] пиншын^[20] 平聲 píngshēng	陰平 yīnpíng	хуа I хуа Ia	/xwǎ/	Rising	˨˦ (24)	Falling	˥˩ (51)	Ia merges to Ib in word-final syllables, including monosyllables.	1	花	/xwá/	High	˥ (55)
ту йигы (I) шынйин^[20] пиншын^[20] 平聲 píngshēng	陽平 yángpíng	хуа I хуа Ib	/xwǎ/	Rising	˨˦ (24)	Rising	˨˦ (24)		2	華	/xwǎ/	Rising	˧˥ (35)
ди эргы (II) шынйин^[20] гошын^[20] 上聲 shǎngshēng		вə II	/vɤ̂/	Falling	˥˩ (51)	Falling	˥˧ (53)		3	我	/wò/	Low/dipping	˩, ˨˩˦ (1, 214)
ди сангы (III) шынйин^[20] дишын^[20] 去聲 qùshēng		чў III	/t͡ɕú/	High	˦ (44)	High	˦ (44)	Some syllables originating in tone 4^{[clarification needed]} fall into tone 1 in modern Mandarin.	4	去	/t͡ɕʰŷ/	Falling	˥˨ (52)
輕聲 qīngshēng		зы I/II/III зы	/t͡sɨ/	Short	Varies	Short	Varies	Actual pitch depends on the preceding syllable.	0	子	/t͡sɹ̩/	Short	Varies

Writing system

Bilingual sign in Dungan and Russian respectively, at the home of Soviet war hero Mansuz Vanakhun [ru]. The sentence includes the Russian loanwords Совет "Soviet" and музей "museum".

Following Soviet policies, Dungan is written in a Cyrillic Russian-based alphabet with five additional letters: Ә, Җ, Ң, Ў and Ү. (It is not to be confused with the Palladius system designed for Standard Chinese.)

**Modern Dungan alphabet and letter pronunciations**
Cyrillic	А/а	Б/б	В/в	Г/г	Д/д	Е/е	Ё/ё	Ә/ә	Ж/ж	Җ/җ	З/з	И/и	Й/й	К/к
Name	a	бэ	вэ	гэ	дэ	e	ё	ә	жэ	җe	зэ	и	йи	кa
IPA	[a]	[pɛ]	[vɛ]	[kɛ]	[tɛ]	[je]	[jɔ]	[ɤ]	[ʐɛ]	[t͡ɕʲe]	[t͡sɛ]	[i]	[ʝi]	[kʰa]

Cyrillic	Л/л	М/м	Н/н	Ң/ң	О/о	П/п	Р/р	С/с	Т/т	У/у	Ў/ў	Ү/ү	Ф/ф	Х/х
Name	эль	эм	эн	ың	o	пэ	эр	эc	тэ	у	ў	ү	эф	xa
IPA	[ɛlʲ]	[ɛm]	[ɛn]	[ɨŋ]	[ɔ]	[pʰɛ]	[əɻ]	[ɛs]	[tʰɛ]	[ʊw]	[u]	[y]	[ɛf]	[xa]

Cyrillic	Ц/ц	Ч/ч	Ш/ш	Щ/щ	Ъ/ъ	Ы/ы	Ь/ь	Э/э	Ю/ю	Я/я
Name	цэ	чэ	шa	щa	нин xo	ы	ван xo	э	ю	йa
IPA	[t͡sʰɛ]	[t͡ʂʰɛ]	[ʂa]	[ɕa]	[nʲɪ̃ xɔ]	[ɨ]	[vã xɔ]	[ɛ]	[jʊw]	[ja]

Dungan is uniquely one of the few varieties of Chinese that is not normally written using Chinese characters.

Originally, the Dungan, as descendants of the Hui, wrote their language in an Arabic-based alphabet known as Xiao'erjing, now virtually extinct among the Dungan. In the Soviet era, members of the community joined the Latinisation movement, creating an alphabet that lasted until 1952, when the Soviet Union completed the shift to Cyrillisation. This is the alphabet in use today.

Tone is not indicated.

This has been met with great interest by those interested in abolishing Chinese characters [zh]; Cyrillic Dungan is given as a successful example of how the Chinese languages do not need characters.

Harbsmeier [zh], however, has cautioned that this is not entirely the case, noting that most ordinary speakers read with difficulty, likely because of the omission of tones, and that the works of the great poet Ya. Shivaza present challenges to even the most learned members of the community, it being unclear what words he was using.^[9]

Comparison with Palladius system

Consonants of Standard Chinese and Dungan
Pinyin	Palladius	Dungan	Pinyin	Palladius	Dungan	Pinyin	Palladius	Dungan	Pinyin	Palladius	Dungan
b	б		p	п		m	м		f	ф
d	д		t	т		n	н	н / л	l	л
z	цз	з	c	ц		s	с
j	цз / цзь	җ / җь	q	ц / ць	ч / чь	x	с / сь	щ / щь
zh	чж	җ	ch	ч		sh	ш	ш / с / ф	r	ж
g	г		k	к					h	х

Grammar

In Kazakhstan, the Dungan language has been Russianizing as a result of the post-Soviet urbanization of the population.^[8]

Nouns

Dungan uses the ba-construction, marking the object, more frequently than Standard Chinese.^[8]

Classifiers

Chinese varieties usually have different classifiers for different types of nouns, with northern varieties tending to have fewer classifiers than southern ones. -гә 個 (formerly spelled as -гы^[21]) is the only classifier found in the Dungan language, though not the only measure word.^[22]

Vocabulary

There is a varying degree of mutual intelligibility between Dungan and various Mandarin dialects.

The basilects of Gansu/Shaanxi Mandarin and Dungan are largely mutually intelligible; Chinese journalists conversant in one of those Mandarin dialects report that they can make themselves understood when communicating with Dungan speakers.

On the other hand, Dungan speakers like Yasyr Shivaza and others have reported that people who speak the Beijing Mandarin dialect can understand Dungan, but Dungans could not understand Beijing Mandarin.^[23]

At the level of basic vocabulary, Dungan contains many words not present in most Mandarin dialects, such as Russian, Arabic, Turkic, and Persian loanwords. When Dru C. Gladney, who had spent some years working with the Hui people in China, met with Dungans in Almaty in 1988, he described the experience as speaking "in a hybrid Gansu dialect that combined Turkish and Russian lexical items".^[24] Rimsky-Korsakoff Dyer suggests that the Arabic, Turkic and Persian influences are limited mostly to common personal names (such as Fatima and Mukhamed) and to days of the week. About 9% of Dungan words are Russian in origin.^[23] Furthermore, Dungan contains some archaic Qing dynasty-era Chinese vocabulary. Because of this, some Dungan vocabulary may sound archaic to Chinese people. For example, they refer to a president as an "emperor" (хуаңды 皇帝)^{[citation needed]} (in addition to зунтун 總統^[25]) and call government offices yamen (ямын 衙門), a term for mandarins' offices in ancient China.^[26]^[25]^[27]

Furthermore, the acrolects of Dungan and Gansu/Shaanxi Mandarin have diverged significantly due to time and cultural influences. During the 20th century, translators and intellectuals introduced many neologisms and calques into the Chinese language, especially for political and technical concepts. Meanwhile, the Dungan, cut off from the mainstream of Chinese discourse by orthographic and political barriers, instead borrowed words for those same concepts from Russian, with which they came into contact through government and higher education.^[28]

These borrowings, as well as native Sinitic Dungan vocabulary, affect mutual intelligibility between Dungan and Standard Mandarin.

1950s-era immigrants from Ili and 21st-century increased contact have resulted in mainstream Chinese vocabulary entering the lexicon; for example, radio broadcasts used to sign off with хозэди 好再的 but have switched to зэ җян 再見.^[11]^[29]

References

Citations

1 2 Dungan at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
1 2 3 Gladney 1991, pp. 393–394. The following pages in this book, 321–395, are occupied by "A Select Glossary of Hui Chinese Islamic Terms", into which Gladney included only words (many found in older publications) that he could verify as known or recognized by people in at least some Hui communities he visited.
↑ Gladney 1991, p. 68.
↑ Owen Lattimore, The Desert Road to Turkestan. London, Methuen & Co, ca. 1928–1929. Page 196.
1 2 3 橋本, 万太郎 (1957). "ジユンヤン語 (ドウンガーン語) 研究の歴史と現状". 中国語学. 1957 (58): 13–18. doi:10.7131/chuugokugogaku.1957.13.
1 2 3 Андронов, Алексей Викторович (2025). "Национальная библиография дунганской книжности: через тернии… / National bibliography of Dungan literature: through the thorns…" (PDF). «Ұлттық библиографияны дамыту: тәжірибе, заманауи технологиялар мен интергация мәселелері» атты халықаралық ғылыми-тәжірибелік конференция материалдарының жинағы. Алматы: Қазақстан Республикасының ұлттық кітапханасы.
↑ "«С волшебной палочкой поэта» — к 120-летию дунганского поэта Ясыра Шивазы. Книжные экспозиции". expositions.nlr.ru. Retrieved 2026-05-31.
1 2 3 4 5 Honkasalo, Sami (2024-02-07). "Kazakhstani Gansu Dungan as a Contact Language: An Analysis of Russian Influence". Languages. 9 (2): 59. doi:10.3390/languages9020059. ISSN 2226-471X.
1 2 Cao, Guangshun; Djamouri, Redouane; Peyraube, Alain (2015). Languages in contact in North China: historical and synchronic studies. Collection des Cahiers de Linguistique – Asie Orientale. CRLAO, École des hautes études en sciences sociales.
1 2 常 & 常 2014.
1 2 丁, 宏 (1999). "东干语及东干文". 东干文化研究.
↑ 菅野, 裕臣. "最近のドゥンガン研究の概況――特にソ連崩壊後の言語学研究について". 日本中央アジア学会報. 9. ISSN 1880-0076.
1 2 3 4 林, 涛 (2012). "东干语概况". 东干语调查研究. 跨境语言研究系列丛书. 北京. ISBN 978-7-5161-1418-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Janşjansьn, Ju. (1938). Gansьn de Şanşi fonjan. Frunze - Xazan: Xьrgwjçwʙan.
1 2 3 Rimsky-Korsakoff 1967.
↑ Hashimoto, Mantaro J. (1978). "Current Developments in Zhunyanese (soviet Dunganese) Studies / ????????". Journal of Chinese Linguistics. 6 (2): 243–267. ISSN 0091-3723. JSTOR 23752833.
↑ 橋本, 萬太郎 (1957). "ジュンヤン語の新字母と音節の綴り方規則". 中国語学. 1957 (68): 219–232. doi:10.7131/chuugokugogaku.1957.219.
↑ Salmi 2007.
↑ Zavyalova 2015.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Янщянсын 1957, p. 13.
↑ Salmi 2017.
↑ Yue, Anne O. (2003). "Chinese dialects: grammar". In Thurgood, Graham; LaPolla, Randy J. (eds.). The Sino-Tibetan languages. Routledge. pp. 84–125. ISBN 978-0-7007-1129-1.
1 2 Rimsky-Korsakoff Dyer, Svetlana (1977). "Soviet Dungan nationalism: a few comments on their origin and language". Monumenta Serica. 33: 349–362. doi:10.1080/02549948.1977.11745054. p. 351.
↑ Gladney 1991, pp. 33, 102.
1 2 林, 涛 (2012). "东干语分类语汇". 东干语调查研究. 跨境语言研究系列丛书. 北京. ISBN 978-7-5161-1418-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ "The "Shaanxi Village" in Kazakhstan". China Radio International - CRIENGLISH.com. 2004-07-09. Archived from the original on 2006-04-24.
↑ 林, 涛 (2012). "东干语词汇特点". 东干语调查研究. 跨境语言研究系列丛书. 北京. ISBN 978-7-5161-1418-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
↑ Mair 1990.
↑ 海, 峰 (HAI Feng) (2003). "试析中亚东干语中的借词 A Pilot Study of Loan Words in Central-Asian Dungan Language". 新疆大学学报(社会科学版) Xinjiang University Journal (Social Science Edition). 28 (3).

Sources

General references

Rimsky-Korsakoff, Svetlana (1967). "Soviet Dungan: The Chinese language of Central Asia: alphabet, phonology, morphology". Monumenta Serica. 26: 352–421. doi:10.1080/02549948.1967.11744973. JSTOR 40725857.
Rimsky-Korsakoff Dyer, Svetlana (1991). I͡asyr Shivaza: The Life and Works of a Soviet Dungan Poet. P. Lang. ISBN 3-631-43963-6.
Contains a detailed bibliography and ample samples of Shivaza works', some in the original Cyrillic Dungan, although most in a specialized transcription, with English and sometimes standard Chinese translations.
Zavjalova, Olga I. (1978). "Some Phonological Aspects of the Dungan Dialects". Computational Analyses of Asian and African Languages (9). Tokyo: 1–24.
Contains an experimental analysis of Dungan tones.
Zavyalova, Olga (2015), "Dungan Language", in Sybesma, Rint (ed.), Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics, doi:10.1163/2210-7363_ecll_COM_000034
海, 峰 (Hai Feng) (2003). 中亚东干语言研究 (Zhongya Donggan yuyan yanjiu). Urumchi. ISBN 7-5631-1789-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
= A Study of the Dungan Language of Central Asia. Description of the Dungan language by a professor of Xinjiang University.
Salmi, Olli (2017). Dungan–English Dictionary (PDF).
- Salmi, Olli (2018). Dungan–English Dictionary. Manchester, England: Eastbridge Books. ISBN 978-1-78869-154-3.
Salmi, Olli (2007-12-29). "Central Asian Dungan as a Chinese Dialect". www.tsalo.fi. Retrieved 2026-05-30.
Mair, Victor (May 1990). "Implications of the Soviet Dungan Script for Chinese Language Reform". Sino-Platonic Papers (18).
Long essay on Dungan, with sample texts.
Gladney, Dru C. (1991). Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the People's Republic (1st ed.). Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-59495-9.
- Gladney, Dru C. (1996). Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the People's Republic (2nd ed.). Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-59497-5.
Spira, Ivo. "A Dictionary of the Dungan Language / Хуэйзў йүян хуадян".
常, 文昌; 常, 立霓 (2014). 世界华语诗苑的奇葩 : 中亚东干诗人十娃子与十四儿的诗.
Янщянсын, Ю. (Юсуп Яншансин) (1957). Җун-ян йүянди җедуан вынфа / Краткая грамматика дунганского языка. Фрунзе: Хырхызстан Гуйҗя Җёщүә Чўбан / Киргизучпедгиз.

External links

Spira, Ivo (ed.). "Digital Archive of Dungan Studies".
"The Dungan Corpus". Beijing Foreign Studies University. c. 2021. (see )
"dungan-association.com". Ассоциация Дунган Кыргызстана.
Машынхаева, Фатима. "Хуэймин вынхуа сайт". Kalaam Media Ltd. Archived from the original on 2026-02-13.

[e27-1] 1 2 Dungan at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)

[g393-2] 1 2 3 Gladney 1991, pp. 393–394. The following pages in this book, 321–395, are occupied by "A Select Glossary of Hui Chinese Islamic Terms", into which Gladney included only words (many found in older publications) that he could verify as known or recognized by people in at least some Hui communities he visited.

[FOOTNOTEGladney199168-3] Gladney 1991, p. 68.

[4] Owen Lattimore, The Desert Road to Turkestan. London, Methuen & Co, ca. 1928–1929. Page 196.

[:3-5] 1 2 3 橋本, 万太郎 (1957). "ジユンヤン語 (ドウンガーン語) 研究の歴史と現状". 中国語学. 1957 (58): 13–18. doi:10.7131/chuugokugogaku.1957.13.

[:4-6] 1 2 3 Андронов, Алексей Викторович (2025). "Национальная библиография дунганской книжности: через тернии… / National bibliography of Dungan literature: through the thorns…" (PDF). «Ұлттық библиографияны дамыту: тәжірибе, заманауи технологиялар мен интергация мәселелері» атты халықаралық ғылыми-тәжірибелік конференция материалдарының жинағы. Алматы: Қазақстан Республикасының ұлттық кітапханасы.

[7] "«С волшебной палочкой поэта» — к 120-летию дунганского поэта Ясыра Шивазы. Книжные экспозиции". expositions.nlr.ru. Retrieved 2026-05-31.

[:6-8] 1 2 3 4 5 Honkasalo, Sami (2024-02-07). "Kazakhstani Gansu Dungan as a Contact Language: An Analysis of Russian Influence". Languages. 9 (2): 59. doi:10.3390/languages9020059. ISSN 2226-471X.

[:0-9] 1 2 Cao, Guangshun; Djamouri, Redouane; Peyraube, Alain (2015). Languages in contact in North China: historical and synchronic studies. Collection des Cahiers de Linguistique – Asie Orientale. CRLAO, École des hautes études en sciences sociales.

[FOOTNOTE常常2014-10] 1 2 常 & 常 2014.

[:5-11] 1 2 丁, 宏 (1999). "东干语及东干文". 东干文化研究.

[12] 菅野, 裕臣. "最近のドゥンガン研究の概況――特にソ連崩壊後の言語学研究について". 日本中央アジア学会報. 9. ISSN 1880-0076.

[:1-13] 1 2 3 4 林, 涛 (2012). "东干语概况". 东干语调查研究. 跨境语言研究系列丛书. 北京. ISBN 978-7-5161-1418-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[14] Janşjansьn, Ju. (1938). Gansьn de Şanşi fonjan. Frunze - Xazan: Xьrgwjçwʙan.

[FOOTNOTERimsky-Korsakoff1967-15] 1 2 3 Rimsky-Korsakoff 1967.

[:2-16] Hashimoto, Mantaro J. (1978). "Current Developments in Zhunyanese (soviet Dunganese) Studies / ????????". Journal of Chinese Linguistics. 6 (2): 243–267. ISSN 0091-3723. JSTOR 23752833.

[17] 橋本, 萬太郎 (1957). "ジュンヤン語の新字母と音節の綴り方規則". 中国語学. 1957 (68): 219–232. doi:10.7131/chuugokugogaku.1957.219.

[FOOTNOTESalmi2007-18] Salmi 2007.

[FOOTNOTEZavyalova2015-19] Zavyalova 2015.

[FOOTNOTEЯнщянсын195713-20] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Янщянсын 1957, p. 13.

[FOOTNOTESalmi2017-21] Salmi 2017.

[22] Yue, Anne O. (2003). "Chinese dialects: grammar". In Thurgood, Graham; LaPolla, Randy J. (eds.). The Sino-Tibetan languages. Routledge. pp. 84–125. ISBN 978-0-7007-1129-1.

[notes-23] 1 2 Rimsky-Korsakoff Dyer, Svetlana (1977). "Soviet Dungan nationalism: a few comments on their origin and language". Monumenta Serica. 33: 349–362. doi:10.1080/02549948.1977.11745054. p. 351.

[FOOTNOTEGladney199133,_102-24] Gladney 1991, pp. 33, 102.

[东干语分类语汇-25] 1 2 林, 涛 (2012). "东干语分类语汇". 东干语调查研究. 跨境语言研究系列丛书. 北京. ISBN 978-7-5161-1418-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[26] "The "Shaanxi Village" in Kazakhstan". China Radio International - CRIENGLISH.com. 2004-07-09. Archived from the original on 2006-04-24.

[东干语词汇特点-27] 林, 涛 (2012). "东干语词汇特点". 东干语调查研究. 跨境语言研究系列丛书. 北京. ISBN 978-7-5161-1418-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

[FOOTNOTEMair1990-28] Mair 1990.

[29] 海, 峰 (HAI Feng) (2003). "试析中亚东干语中的借词 A Pilot Study of Loan Words in Central-Asian Dungan Language". 新疆大学学报(社会科学版) Xinjiang University Journal (Social Science Edition). 28 (3).

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