Dungan language
Encyclopedia
The Dungan language is a Sinitic language
spoken by the Dungan of Central Asia
, an ethnic group related to the Hui people
of China
.
and Kazakhstan
(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 the 19th-century western writers as well as by members of Turkic nationalities in China and Central Asia) would normally speak the same Mandarin dialect as the Han people in the same area (or in the area from which the particular Hui community had been resettled from). At the same time, due to their unique history, their speech would be rich in Islamic or Islamic influenced terminology, based on loanwords from Arabic, Persian, and Turkic languages, as well as translations of them into Chinese. 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. While not constituting a separate language, these words, phrases and turns of speech, known as Huihui hua (回回话, "Hui speech"), served as markers of group identity. 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".
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.
In the Soviet Union, a written standard of the Dungan language was developed, based on a Gansu dialect, rather than the Beijing base of Standard Chinese
. The language was used in the schools in Dungan villages. In the Soviet
time there were several school textbooks published for studying the Dungan language, a three volume Russian-Dungan dictionary (14,000 words), the Dungan-Russian dictionary, linguistics
monographs on the language and books in Dungan. The first Dungan-language newspaper was established in 1932; it continues publication today in weekly form.
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".
are understood by Dungans. On the other hand, Dungan speakers like Yasyr Shivaza and others have reported that Chinese who speak Beijing Mandarin dialect
can understand Dungan, but Dungans could not understand the Beijing Mandarin.
, with speakers in Kazakhstan
, Uzbekistan
, and Russia
as well. The Dungan ethnic group are the descendants of refugees from China who migrated west into Central Asia.
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 mother tongue appears to have fallen sharply.
(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 languages, 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.
, and IPA.
, and IPA.
Note that the correspondence between Dungan vowels and Standard Chinese vowels is not perfect.
Vowel constructs that can be used as independent syllable without consonants are shown in parenthesis.
There are rhotacised vowels, as well as some syllables only seen in loan words from Russian, Kyrgyz, Arabic etc., in addition to the above table.
; Chinese journalists conversant in one of those Mandarin dialects report that they can make themselves understood when communicating with Dungan speakers. However, even at the level of basic vocabulary, Dungan contains many words not present in modern Mandarin dialects, such as Arabic
and Persian
loanwords, as well as archaic Qing dynasty
-era Chinese vocabulary. 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 calque
s into the Chinese language, especially for political and technical concepts. However, the Dungan, cut off from the mainstream of Chinese discourse by orthographic barriers, instead borrowed words for those same concepts from Russian
, with which they came into contact through government and higher education. As a result of these borrowings, the equivalent standard Chinese terms are not widely known or understood among the Dungan.
Note
Dungan is unique in that it is the only variety
of the Chinese language
which is not normally written using Chinese character
s. Originally the Dungan, who were Muslim
descendants of the Hui
, wrote their language in an Arabic
-based system known as Xiao'erjing. The Soviet Union
banned all Arabic scripts in the late 1920s, which led to a Latin
orthography. The Latin orthography lasted until 1940, when the Soviet government promulgated the current Cyrillic
-based system. Xiao'erjing is now virtually extinct in Dungan society, but it remains in limited use by some Hui communities in China.
The writing system is based on the standard 3-tone dialect. Tones marks or numbering do not appear in general-purpose writing, but are specified in dictionaries, even for loanword
s.
Consonant chart:
Works of the Dungan poet Yasir Shiwaza (Iasyr 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 the book by S. Rimsky-Korsakoff (1991).
Spoken Chinese
Chinese comprises many regional language varieties sometimes grouped together as the Chinese dialects, the primary ones being Mandarin, Wu, Cantonese, and Min. These are not mutually intelligible, and even many of the regional varieties are themselves composed of a number of...
spoken by the Dungan of Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
, an ethnic group related to the Hui people
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
History
The Dungan people of KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
and Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
(with smaller groups living in other post-Soviet states) are the descendants of several groups of the Hui people
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
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 the 19th-century western writers as well as by members of Turkic nationalities in China and Central Asia) would normally speak the same Mandarin dialect as the Han people in the same area (or in the area from which the particular Hui community had been resettled from). At the same time, due to their unique history, their speech would be rich in Islamic or Islamic influenced terminology, based on loanwords from Arabic, Persian, and Turkic languages, as well as translations of them into Chinese. 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. While not constituting a separate language, these words, phrases and turns of speech, known as Huihui hua (回回话, "Hui speech"), served as markers of group identity. 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".
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
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
and the Turkic languages of their neighbors.
In the Soviet Union, a written standard of the Dungan language was developed, based on a Gansu dialect, rather than the Beijing base of Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese
Standard Chinese, or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore....
. The language was used in the schools in Dungan villages. In the Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
time there were several school textbooks published for studying the Dungan language, a three volume Russian-Dungan dictionary (14,000 words), the Dungan-Russian dictionary, linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
monographs on the language and books in Dungan. The first Dungan-language newspaper was established in 1932; it continues publication today in weekly form.
When Dru C. Gladney
Dru C. Gladney
Dru C. Gladney, recent President of the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College, is currently Professor of Anthropology at Pomona College. Gladney is the author of four books and more than 100 academic articles and book chapters on topics spanning the Asian continent. He received his Ph.D. in...
, who had spent some years working with the Hui people in China, met with Dungans in Almaty
Almaty
Almaty , also known by its former names Verny and Alma-Ata , is the former capital of Kazakhstan and the nation's largest city, with a population of 1,348,500...
in 1988, he described the experience as speaking "in a hybrid Gansu dialect that combined Turkish and Russian lexical items".
Mutual intelligibility with Mandarin Dialects
There is a varying degree of mutual intelligibility between Dungan and various Mandarin dialects. The Shaanxi and Gansu Mandarin dialectsZhongyuan Mandarin
Central Plains or Zhongyuan Mandarin is a dialect of Mandarin Chinese spoken in the central part of Shaanxi, Henan, and southern part of Shandong.The archaic dialect of Peking opera is a form of Zhongyuan Mandarin....
are understood by Dungans. On the other hand, Dungan speakers like Yasyr Shivaza and others have reported that Chinese who speak Beijing Mandarin dialect
Beijing dialect
Beijing dialect, or Pekingese , is the dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. It is the phonological basis of Standard Chinese, which is used by the People's Republic of China, the Republic of China , and Singapore....
can understand Dungan, but Dungans could not understand the Beijing Mandarin.
Demographics
Dungan is spoken primarily in KyrgyzstanKyrgyzstan
Kyrgyzstan , officially the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the world's six independent Turkic states . Located in Central Asia, landlocked and mountainous, Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the southwest and China to the east...
, with speakers in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
, and Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
as well. The Dungan ethnic group are the descendants of refugees from China who migrated west into Central Asia.
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 mother tongue appears to have fallen sharply.
| Year | Dungan L1 First language A first language is the language a person has learned from birth or within the critical period, or that a person speaks the best and so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity... | Russian L2 Second language A second language or L2 is any language learned after the first language or mother tongue. Some languages, often called auxiliary languages, are used primarily as second languages or lingua francas .... | 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 |
Phonology
In basic structure and vocabulary, the Dungan language is not very different from Mandarin Chinese, specifically a variety of Zhongyuan MandarinZhongyuan Mandarin
Central Plains or Zhongyuan Mandarin is a dialect of Mandarin Chinese spoken in the central part of Shaanxi, Henan, and southern part of Shandong.The archaic dialect of Peking opera is a form of Zhongyuan Mandarin....
(not Lan-Yin Mandarin) spoken in the southern part of the province of Gansu
Gansu
' is a province located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China.It lies between the Tibetan and Huangtu plateaus, and borders Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia to the north, Xinjiang and Qinghai to the west, Sichuan to the south, and Shaanxi to the east...
and the western part of the valley of Guanzhong
Guanzhong
Guanzhong , or Guanzhong Plain, is a historical region of China corresponding to the lower valley of the Wei River. It is called Guanzhong or 'within the passes' to distinguish it from 'Guandong' or 'east of the pass', that is, the North China Plain. The North China Plain is bordered on the west by...
in the province of Shaanxi
Shaanxi
' is a province in the central part of Mainland China, and it includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River in addition to the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of this province...
. Like other Chinese languages, 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
The corresponding table compares current Dungan spelling, old Dungan spelling, pinyinPinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
, and IPA.
| Unaspirated Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
Aspired Aspiration (phonetics) In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. To feel or see the difference between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, one can put a hand or a lit candle in front of one's mouth, and say pin ... |
Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
Voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... etc |
|||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cyrillic | Latin | Pinyin | IPA | Cyrillic | Latin | Pinyin | IPA | Cyrillic | Latin | Pinyin | IPA | Cyrillic | Latin | Pinyin | IPA | Cyrillic | Latin | Pinyin | IPA | ||||
| б | b | b | p | п | p | p | pʰ | м | m | m | m | ф | f | f | f | в | v | w | w | ||||
| д | d | d | t | т | t | t | tʰ | н | n | n | n | л | l | l | l | ||||||||
| з | z | z | ts | ц | c | c | tsʰ | с | s | s | s | р | r | － | r | ||||||||
| җ | ⱬ | zh | tʂ | ч | ç | ch | tʂʰ | ш | ş | sh | ʂ | ж | ƶ | r | ʐ | ||||||||
| j | tɕ | q | tɕʰ | щ | x | ɕ | й | j | y | j | |||||||||||||
| г | g | g | k | к | k | k | kʰ | ң | ņ | ng | ŋ | х | x | h | x | ||||||||
Vowels
Using Standard Chinese vowels as basis, the follow are each vowels and their respective current Dungan spelling, old Dungan spelling, pinyinPinyin
Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into...
, and IPA.
Note that the correspondence between Dungan vowels and Standard Chinese vowels is not perfect.
| Cyrillic | Latin | Pinyin | IPA | Cyrillic | Latin | Pinyin | IPA | Cyrillic | Latin | Pinyin | IPA | Cyrillic | Latin | Pinyin | IPA | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ы | ƅ | i | ɨː | и | i | i | iː | ў | w | u | uː | ү | y | ü, u | yː | |||
| а | a | a | aː | я | ja | ia (ya) | ia (jaː) | уа | ua | ua | ua | |||||||
| ә | ə | e | əː | е | je | ie (ye) | iə (jəː) | уә | uә | uo | uə | үә | yә | üe, ue | yə | |||
| э | e | ê, ai | ɛː | уэ | ue | ue, uai | uɛ | |||||||||||
| о | o | o, ao | ɔː | ё | jo | iao (yao) | iɔː (jiɔː) | уэй | wj | ui | uɛi | |||||||
| ый | ƅj | ei | ei | уй | vi | wei | uei | |||||||||||
| у | u | ou | ou | ю | ju, jy | iu (you) | iou (jou) | |||||||||||
| ан | an | an | æ̃ | ян | jan | ian (yan) | iæ̃ (jæ̃) | уан | uan | uan | uæ̃ | үан | yan | üan, uan | yæ̃ | |||
| он | on | ang | aŋ | ён | jon | iang (yang) | iaŋ (jaŋ) | уон | uon | uang | uaŋ | |||||||
| ын | ƅn | eng, en | əŋ | ин | in | ing, in | iŋ | ун | wn | ong | ʊŋ | үн | yn | iong, un | yŋ | |||
| эр | әƣ | er | əɻ |
Vowel constructs that can be used as independent syllable without consonants are shown in parenthesis.
There are rhotacised vowels, as well as some syllables only seen in loan words from Russian, Kyrgyz, Arabic etc., in addition to the above table.
Tones
| Tone number Tone number A tone number is a numeral used in a notational system for marking the tones of a language. The number is usually placed after the romanized syllable. Notice that a number may have very different meanings in different contexts since the systems may have developed independently.Other means of... |
Tone name Tone name In the Chinese and Vietnamese languages, tone names are the names given to the tones these languages use.*In Chinese, tone names are given in terms of the four tones, namely level , rising , departing , and entering , as well as dark and light , and high and low .* Standard Vietnamese has six... |
Dungan example | Chinese character Chinese character Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages... |
Gansu-Dungan | Shaanxi-Dungan | Standard Chinese Standard Chinese Standard Chinese, or Modern Standard Chinese, also known as Mandarin or Putonghua, is the official language of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China , and is one of the four official languages of Singapore.... |
References | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pitch pattern | Tone contour Tone contour A tone contour is a tone in a tonal language which shifts from one pitch to another over the course of the syllable or word. Tone contours are especially common in East and Southeast Asia, but occur elsewhere, such as the Kru languages of Liberia and the Ju languages of Namibia.-Themes:When the... |
Pitch pattern | Tone contour Tone contour A tone contour is a tone in a tonal language which shifts from one pitch to another over the course of the syllable or word. Tone contours are especially common in East and Southeast Asia, but occur elsewhere, such as the Kru languages of Liberia and the Ju languages of Namibia.-Themes:When the... |
Pitch pattern | Tone contour Tone contour A tone contour is a tone in a tonal language which shifts from one pitch to another over the course of the syllable or word. Tone contours are especially common in East and Southeast Asia, but occur elsewhere, such as the Kru languages of Liberia and the Ju languages of Namibia.-Themes:When the... |
|||||
| 1 | 陰平 (yīnpíng) |
хуа | 花 | Rising | rowspan=2 align="center" |˨˦ (24) | Falling | align="center" |˥˩ (51) | High | align="center" |˥ (55) | Standard Gansu-Dungan doesn't distinguish tone 1 and tone 2 only in the final position of phonetic words. |
| 2 | 陽平 (yángpíng) |
хуа | 華 | Rising | align="center" |˨˦ (24) | Rising | align="center" |˧˥ (35) | |||
| 3 | 上声 (shǎngshēng) |
во | 我 | Falling | align="center" |˥˩ (51) | Falling | align="center" |˥˧ (53) | Low/dipping | align="center" |˩, ˨˩˦ (1, 214) | |
| 4 | 去声 (qùshēng) |
Чў | 去 | High | align="center" |˦ (44) | High | align="center" |˦ (44) | Falling | align="center" |˥˨ (52) | Some characters originating in tone 4 fall into tone 1 in modern Mandarin. |
| 0 | 軽声 | зы | 子 | Short | Varies | Short | Varies | Short | Varies | Actual pitch depends on the preceding character. |
Vocabulary
The basilects of Gansu/Shaanxi Mandarin and Dungan are largely mutually intelligibleMutual intelligibility
In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort...
; Chinese journalists conversant in one of those Mandarin dialects report that they can make themselves understood when communicating with Dungan speakers. However, even at the level of basic vocabulary, Dungan contains many words not present in modern Mandarin dialects, such as Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
and Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
loanwords, as well as archaic Qing dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
-era Chinese vocabulary. 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 calque
Calque
In linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation.-Calque:...
s into the Chinese language, especially for political and technical concepts. However, the Dungan, cut off from the mainstream of Chinese discourse by orthographic barriers, instead borrowed words for those same concepts from Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, with which they came into contact through government and higher education. As a result of these borrowings, the equivalent standard Chinese terms are not widely known or understood among the Dungan.
Writing system
The modern Dungan language is the only spoken Chinese that is written in the Cyrillic alphabet, as they lived under the Soviet rule.| Cyrillic | А/а | Б/б | В/в | Г/г | Д/д | Е/е | Ё/ё | Ж/ж | Җ/җ | З/з | И/и | Й/й | К/к | Л/л |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | a | бэ | вэ | гэ | дэ | e | ё | жэ | | җe | | зэ | | и | ий | кa | эль |
| IPA | a, ɑ | p | w | k | t | iɛ | iɔ | ʐ | tʂ, tɕ | ts | i, ei | j | kʰ | l |
| Latin | a | b | v | g | d | (y)e | yo | zh, rzh | zh | z | i | (y)u, (y)i | k | l |
| Cyrillic | М/м | Н/н | Ң/ң | Ә/ә | О/о | П/п | Р/р | С/с | Т/т | У/у | Ў/ў | Ү/ү | Ф/ф | Х/х |
| Name | эм | эн | ың | ә | o | пэ | эр | эc | | тэ | | у | | ў | ү | эф | xa |
| IPA | m | n | ŋ | ɤ | ɔ | pʰ | ɚ, r | s | tʰ | ɤu, u | u | y | f | x |
| Latin | m | n | ng | eh | o | p | r | s | t | u | wu | (y)u | f | kh |
| 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 | tsʰ | tʂʰ, tɕʰ | ʂ | ɕ | * | ɪ, ɨə | * | ɛ | iɤu | ia, iɑ | ||||
| Latin | ts | ch | sh | shch, hs | `` | `i | ` | e(i) | yu | ya |
Note
- The letters Ъ and Ь are only used to write Russian loanwords
Dungan is unique in that it is the only variety
Variety (linguistics)
In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
of the Chinese language
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
which is not normally written using Chinese character
Chinese character
Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
s. Originally the Dungan, who were Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
descendants of the Hui
Hui people
The Hui people are an ethnic group in China, defined as Chinese speaking people descended from foreign Muslims. They are typically distinguished by their practice of Islam, however some also practice other religions, and many are direct descendants of Silk Road travelers.In modern People's...
, wrote their language in an Arabic
Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
-based system known as Xiao'erjing. The Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
banned all Arabic scripts in the late 1920s, which led to a Latin
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
orthography. The Latin orthography lasted until 1940, when the Soviet government promulgated the current Cyrillic
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
-based system. Xiao'erjing is now virtually extinct in Dungan society, but it remains in limited use by some Hui communities in China.
The writing system is based on the standard 3-tone dialect. Tones marks or numbering do not appear in general-purpose writing, but are specified in dictionaries, even for loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s.
Consonant chart:
| Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
Palladiy | Dungan | Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
Palladiy | Dungan | Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
Palladiy | Dungan | Pinyin Pinyin Pinyin is the official system to transcribe Chinese characters into the Roman alphabet in China, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. It is also often used to teach Mandarin Chinese and spell Chinese names in foreign publications and used as an input method to enter Chinese characters into... |
Palladiy | Dungan | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| b | б | б | p | п | п | m | м | м | f | ф | ф | |||
| d | д | д | t | т | т | n | н | н / л | l | л | л | |||
| g | г | г | k | к | к | h | х | х | ||||||
| j | цз(ь) | җ(ь) | q | ц(ь) | ч(ь) | x | с(ь) | щ(ь) | ||||||
| z | цз | з | c | ц | ц | s | с | с | ||||||
| zh | чж | җ | ch | ч | ч | sh | ш | ш / с / ф | r | ж | ж | |||
Literature
A number of books in Dungan language, including textbooks, Dungan-Russian and Russian-Dungan dictionaries, a Dungan etymological dictionary, collections of folk tales, original and translated fiction and poetry have been published in Kyrgyzstan. Usual print runs were no more than a few hundred copies. A newspaper in Dungan has been published as well.Works of the Dungan poet Yasir Shiwaza (Iasyr Shivaza
Iasyr Shivaza
Iasyr Shivaza or Shiwaza was a Soviet Dungan poet, writer, editor, and scholar.- Name spelling :The writer's name was spelled Jasƅl Sƅvazƅ in the Latin-based Dungan alphabet that was in use in 1932-53, and Ясыр Шывазы in the modern Cyrillic Dungan alphabet...
) 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 the book by S. Rimsky-Korsakoff (1991).
General references
- Svetlana Rimsky-Korsakoff Dyer, Soviet Dungan: The Chinese language of Central Asia: alphabet, phonology, morphology. Asian Studies Research Institute, Indiana University, 1967. (No ISBN).
- Svetlana Rimsky-Korsakoff Dyer, Iasyr ShivazaIasyr ShivazaIasyr Shivaza or Shiwaza was a Soviet Dungan poet, writer, editor, and scholar.- Name spelling :The writer's name was spelled Jasƅl Sƅvazƅ in the Latin-based Dungan alphabet that was in use in 1932-53, and Ясыр Шывазы in the modern Cyrillic Dungan alphabet...
: The Life and Works of a Soviet Dungan Poet. 1991. ISBN 3631439636. (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). - Olga I. Zavjalova. "Some Phonological Aspects of the Dungan Dialects // Computational Analyses of Asian and African Languages." Tokyo, 1978. No. 9. Pp. 1–24. (Contains an experimental analysis of Dungan tones).
- 海峰。 中亚东干语言研究 (Hai Feng. Zhongya Donggan yuyan yanjiu—A Study of the Dungan Language of Central Asia.) Urumchi, 2003. 479 p. ISBN 7-5631-1789-X. (Description of the Dungan language by a professor of Xinjiang University).
External links
- Ethnologue entry
- "Implications of the Soviet Dungan Script for Chinese Language Reform": long essay on Dungan, with sample texts
- Dungan writing system in Omniglot
- The Shaanxi Village in Kazakhstan
- Soviet census data for mother tongue and second language, in English
- Olli Salmi.Central Asian Dungan as a Chinese Dialect. http://www.uusikaupunki.fi/~olsalmi/dungan/Dungan%20as%20Chinese%20Dialect.html