世界语林

The Dungan language resonates from the Chu Valley, a region spanning southeastern Kazakhstan and northern Kyrgyzstan. This unique tongue is the mother tongue of the Dungan people, a group who trace their origins to the Hui people and who journeyed from Qing China during the 1800s.

Evolving from the Central Plains Mandarin dialects of Gansu and Shaanxi, Dungan stands apart. It is notably distinguished as the sole Sino-Tibetan language to adopt the Cyrillic script for its official writing. Furthermore, the language carries distinct loanwords and older terms that are absent in other present-day forms of Mandarin, reflecting its unique historical path.