The Dungan language (autonym: khueuzwu yuuyan; 东干语 [東干語] in Chinese) is a language spoken by the 50,000 Dungan or (Hui) of Central Asia, including Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, Russia. This ethnic group may be the descendants of prisoners-of-war brought to China in the 14th Century, and migrated west from China into Central Asia.
Although in vocabulary and structure, the language is not very different from Mandarin Chinese, it is unique in that it is the only variation of the Chinese language which is not normally written using Chinese characters. Originally the Dungan, being Muslim, wrote their language using Arabic characters. However the Soviet Union banned all Arabic scripts in the late 1920s. A Roman alphabet lasted until 1940, when the current Cyrillic alphabet was enforced. Like other Chinese languages, Dungan is tonal. There are two main dialects, one with 4 tones, and the other, upon which the writing system is based, has 3 tones, but this is not indicated in writing.
Dungan is most akin to the dialects of Mandarin spoken in the provinces of Shaanxi and Gansu. However, it contains many Russian, Arabic, and Persian loanwords. It forms most new words, however, using its own resources, as Chinese does. It is used in the school system.
Dungan alphabet:
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, 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, Ц/ц, Ч/ч, Ш/ш, Щ/щ, Ъ/ъ, Ы/ы, Ь/ь, Э/э, Ю/ю, Я/я
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