During its existence, the character set or alphabet of the Dungan language has changed its graphic base several times and has been repeatedly reformed. Currently, the Dungan script functions in Cyrillic. Three stages are distinguished in the history of the Dungan script:

pre-1927 – written completely in Chinese characters; 1927-1928 – attempts to create a writing system based on the Arabic script system Xiao'erjing, developed in China by the Hui Muslims; 1928-1953 – writing based on the Latin alphabet; since 1953 – writing based on the Cyrillic alphabet.

It is used in the territory of the former USSR, in regions where the Dungan language is widespread (mainly Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan).

Chinese characters

In China, to write texts in their native Chinese language, the Hui people, whom the Dungan people directly descend from and who are occasionally also referred to as Dungans, used either Chinese characters or a modified Arabic script called Xiao'erjing. In China, the Hui people continue to use Chinese characters to write and speak their dialect of Chinese.

In 2002, Huizu yuyan bao was published in Bishkek, written in Dungan Cyrillic with parallel Chinese character transcription and pinyin annotation.

Chinese researchers have published anthologies of Dungan works transcribed into Chinese characters for the interest of non-Dungan society.

In both cases, writers have struggled with transcribing vocabulary unique to Dungan.

Arabic script At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the first Cyrillic records of Dungan dialects in the Russian Empire were made by V. I. Tsibuzgin, a teacher at the Russian-Dungan school in the village of Karakunuz, and his assistant, Zhebur Matsivang.

In 1928, during the Soviet era, a formalized alphabet based on the Xiao'erjing system was proposed in Tashkent by Dungan students Ya. Shivaza, Yu. Yanshansin, and H. Makeev.

This alphabet included the following letters:

ى ه ۋ و ن م ل ڭ گ ك ق ف غ ﻉ ﻅ ﻁ ڞ ﺽ ﺹ ش س ژ ز ر ﺫ د خ ﺡ چ ﺝ ث ﺕ پ ب ا

Finals of syllables were represented primarily by diacritics (followed by a vowel letter in order to provide clarification). Unlike Xiao'erjing, -n and -ng syllable codas were distinguished, and thus nunation was dropped (allowing for solutions such as doubling of diacritic or other innovations on the diacritic to be a means of representing tones).

This alphabet did not manage to gain popular use, since at that time the question of Latinization of the Dungan script was raised.

questions the assertion that most Dungans were illiterate prior to Soviet campaigns. The Dungan community received Xiao'erjing letters from relatives in China into the 1950s.

Latin

In January 1928, at the 2nd Plenum of the All-Union Central Committee of the New Turkic Alphabet in Tashkent, the Dungan Latinized alphabet was adopted. Its authors were Ya. Zhang (Ya. Dzhon) and a group of Dungan students studying at Tashkent universities. Soviet scientists V. M. Alekseev, A. A. Dragunov and E. D. Polivanov assisted them in developing the alphabet.

The first Dungan alphabet had the following form: A a, B в, C c, Ç ç, D d, E e, F f, G g, Ƣ ƣ, H h, I i, J j, K k, L l, M m, N n, Ꞑ ꞑ, O o, Ɵ ɵ, P p, R r, S s, Ş ş, Ꟍ ꟍ, T t, U u, V v, X x, Y y, Z z, Ƶ ƶ, Ь ь. In the finally approved version of the alphabet, the letter Ꟍ ꟍ was cancelled and the letter Ә ә was introduced (however, in the first Dungan primer, capital letters were not used). The alphabet also used 4 digraphs: Dƶ dƶ, Ts ts, Tş tş, Uv uv. In March 1932, at a meeting on the Dungan alphabet, it was decided to reform it. Thus, the letters H h, Ƣ ƣ, Ɵ ɵ, as well as all digraphs, were abolished. The letters W w and Ⱬ ⱬ were introduced.

The following changes were made to the meanings of the letters: ts → c, tş → ç, dƶ → ⱬ, h → şj, c → çj, ç → ⱬj, ɵ → yә. The letter ƣ, which denoted the jagged, unrolled [r] in Dungan words, was replaced by the letter r, which had previously denoted [r] in Russian borrowings. One of the goals of the writing reform was the unification of the Dungan alphabet with the newly created Chinese Latinized alphabet. The letter j denoted the softness of the preceding consonant, but was not written before i and y. In June 1932, the conference in Frunze generally approved these changes, while retaining the letter Ƣ ƣ. Later, it was proposed to exclude from the alphabet the letter Ꞑ ꞑ, which was used in only a few words.

Dungan Latin alphabet after the reform:

A aB вC cÇ çD dE eƏ əF fG gƢ ƣI iJ jЬ ьK kL lM mN nꞐ ꞑO oP pR rS sŞ şT tU uV vW wX xY yZ zƵ ƶⱫ ⱬ

Cyrillic The question of switching the Dungan alphabet to Cyrillic was raised shortly before the Great Patriotic War, which prevented the implementation of this project. It was revisited in 1952, when the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences decided to create a commission to develop a Dungan Cyrillic alphabet. The commission was headed by A. A. Dragunov. Their projects were presented by Yu. Yanshansin, A. A. Dragunov, , G. P. Serdyuchenko and A. Kalimov. Opinions were expressed about the need for a separate letter ҷ for the sound , about using the letter у' instead of ў, about the uselessness of the letter ң and about replacing the native rhotic р (Latin ƣ) with э̡. At the insistence of the Dungan representatives, and overriding the objection of the linguists, Latin ş unifying the allophones was split into Cyrillic ш and щ following Russian sound values. As a result of discussions in 1953 (with some changes), the project of Yusup Yanshansin was approved. In Hashimoto's evaluation, the final Cyrillic alphabet is a transliteration of the previous Latin alphabet. This alphabet is still in use today and has the following form:

А аБ бВ вГ гД дЕ еЁ ёӘ әЖ жҖ җЗ зИ иЙ йК кЛ лМ мН нҢ ңО оП пР рС сТ тУ уЎ ўҮ үФ фХ хЦ цЧ чШ шЩ щЪ ъЫ ыЬ ьЭ эЮ юЯ я

Tones

Tones have never been indicated in practical writing.

When scientifically or pedagogically necessary, they are, in the traditional 3-tone analysis, designated by the Roman numerals -- ( owner, master). Some use superscript numbers after syllables ( chamomile). Language textbooks have used (unmarked)-- after the vowel. In the full 4-tone analysis, the Roman numeral system becomes ----(unmarked), with tone I being split into Ia and Ib and neutral tone being unmarked instead of analyzed as I, II, or III.

A Latinized-era proposal was the usage of the diacritics --. A modern proposal by Elke Rehorn, used experimentally in children's literature, is to use the diacritics ----(unmarked).

A failed proposal by Ya. Shivaza was the doubling of letters.

+ Sample of a sentence with marked tone

Correspondence chart + Alphabetic and phonetic table of Standard Dungan Cyrillic order Cyrillic Latin IPA (erhua forms of vowels) Latin order Alphabet # Initial # Final # Cyrillic Name Latin Pinyin(Du Songshou / Lin Tao) IPA(Lin Tao) IPA(O. Zavyalova) Cyrillic Latin IPA(Lin Tao) Alphabet # Initial # Final # 1 1 а а a a ар aƣ 1 1 2 1 б бэ ʙ b 2 1 3 2 в вэ v v 25 5 4 3 г гэ g g 9 17 5 4 д дэ d d 5 6 6 3 е е (йэ) ie ie ер ieƣ 15 7 4 ё ё (йо) io iao ёр ioƣ 16 8 6 ә ә (ыо) ə e әр əƣ 7 3 9 5 ж жэ ƶ r 30 13 10 6 җ җы (джы) z̧ zh 31 15 10 6 җ (z̧i) j 31 15 11 7 з зэ (дзэ) z z 29 12 12 7 и и i i ир iƣ 11 4 13 8 й й (ий) / дуан и j y 12 20 14 9 к ка k k 13 18 15 10 л эл l l 14 9 16 11 м эм m m 15 2 17 12 н эн n n 16 8 18 13 ң эң (энг) / ын / ңә ꞑ ng 17 19 9 о о o o, ao / ao ор oƣ 18 5 20 14 п пэ p p 19 3 21 р эр r 20 21 р эр ƣ er / ∅ 10 22 15 с эс s s 21 11 23 16 т тэ t t 23 7 24 11 у у u u / ou ур uƣ 24 6 25 19 ў ў (ву, ув) w w / u ўр wƣ 26 7 26 20 ү ү / йү (йӱ) y ü үр yƣ 28 8 27 17 ф эф f f 8 4 28 18 х ха x h 27 19 29 19 ц цэ c c 3 10 30 20 ч чэ (çi) q 4 16 30 20 ч чы ç ch 4 16 31 21 ш ша ş sh 22 14 32 22 щ щя (şi) x 22 14 33 ъ нинхо 34 24 ы ы ь i, e / i ыр ьƣ 32 9 34 24 ы ы ь i, e / i ыр ьƣ 32 9 35 ь ванхо 36 27 э э e ai / ê эр eƣ 6 2 37 28 ю ю (йу) iu iou юр iuƣ 17 38 29 я я (йа) ia ia яр iaƣ 14 23 2 ан an an ар aƣ 18 5 ён ion iang ёр ioƣ 39 8 ин in in, ing / ing ир iƣ 19 10 он on ang ор oƣ 20 12 уа ua ua уар uaƣ 10 13 уан uan uan уар uaƣ 35 14 уә uə uo уәр uəƣ 12 15 уй, уэй ui uei / uei, uai ур uiƣ ? 25 16 ун un uen, ong / ueng ур uƣ 21 17 уон uon uang уор uoƣ 36 18 уэ ue uai уэр ueƣ 11 21 үан yan üan үар yaƣ 37 22 үә yə üe үәр yəƣ 13 23 үн yn ün, iong / iong үр yƣ 22 25 ый ьi ei ыр ьiƣ ? 24 26 ын ьn en, eng / eng ыр ьƣ 23 30 ян ian ian яр iaƣ 38 эр, әр эй

References Table of valid syllables (Cyrillic), with numbered initials and finals. . List of the new Cyrillic alphabet, with letter names and Latin equivalents. . . Table of valid syllables (Latin), with numbered initials and unnumbered finals. . Lin Tao's list of the Cyrillic initials and finals, with IPA and Hanyu Pinyin equivalents. . List of the new Cyrillic alphabet, with letter names and Latin, Hanyu Pinyin, and Zhuyin Fuhao equivalents. . List of valid finals (Cyrillic), with Latin, Hanyu Pinyin, and Zhuyin Fuhao equivalents. . Table of Gansu dialect initials, in IPA with Latin and Cyrillic equivalents. . Table of Gansu dialect finals, in IPA with Latin and Cyrillic equivalents. . . A table depicting the new Latin alphabet. Figure 3 of .

Table of "old" and "new" (undergoing erhua) syllable endings (Latin). .

(1st edition appeared in 1991)