Dungan 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

The corresponding table compares current Dungan spelling, old Dungan spelling, pinyin, and IPA.

Consonant table

Unaspirated					Aspirated					Nasal					Fricative					Voiced 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	ɻ
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	ʝ
г	g	g	k		к	k	k	kʰ		ң	ņ	ng	ŋ		х	x	h	x

Vowels

Using Standard Chinese vowels as basis, each vowel and its respective current Dungan spelling is presented below, along with the old Dungan spelling, using pinyin, and IPA.

Note that the correspondence between Dungan vowels and Standard Chinese vowels is not perfect.

Vowel table

Cyrillic	Latin	Pinyin	IPA		Cyrillic	Latin	Pinyin	IPA		Cyrillic	Latin	Pinyin	IPA		Cyrillic	Latin	Pinyin	IPA
ы	ь	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	ɤː		е	je	ie (ye)	ie (jeː)		уә	uә	uo	uɤ		үә	yә	üe, ue	yɤ
э	e	ê, ai	ɛː							уэ	ue	ue, uai	uɛ
о	o	o, ao	ɔː		ё	jo	iao (yao)	iɔː (jɔː)		уэй	wj	ui	uɛi
ый	ьj	ei	ɨi							уй	vi	wei	uei
у	u	ou	ʊ		ю	ju, jy	iu (you)	iou (jou)
ан	an	an	æ̃~æn		ян	jan	ian (yan)	iæ̃~iæn (jæ̃~jæn)		уан	uan	uan	uæ̃~uæn		үан	yan	üan, uan	yæ̃~yæn
он	on	ang	ɔ̃~ɔn		ён	jon	iang (yang)	iɔ̃~iɔn (jɔ̃~jɔn)		уон	uon	uang	uɔn
ын	ьn	eng, en	ə̃~ən		ин	in	ing, in	ĩ~in		ун	wn	ong	un		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

Tonal comparison between Dungan and Mandarin

Tone number	Tone name	Dungan example	Chinese character	Gansu-Dungan		Shaanxi-Dungan		Standard Chinese		References
				Pitch pattern	Tone contour	Pitch pattern	Tone contour	Pitch pattern	Tone contour
1	陰平 (yīnpíng)	хуа	花	Rising	˨˦ (24)	Falling	˥˩ (51)	High	˥ (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	˨˦ (24)	Rising	˧˥ (35)
3	上声 (shǎngshēng)	вə	我	Falling	˥˩ (51)	Falling	˥˧ (53)	Low/dipping	˩, ˨˩˦ (1, 214)
4	去声 (qùshēng)	чў	去	High	˦ (44)	High	˦ (44)	Falling	˥˨ (52)	Some syllables originating in tone 4 fall into tone 1 in modern Mandarin.
0	輕声	зы	子	Short	Varies	Short	Varies	Short	Varies	Actual pitch depends on the preceding syllable.

External links

• Dungan language