Dungan

//ˈdʊŋɡɑːn// name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A Muslim people originally from north-west China who currently reside in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia. plural, plural-only
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    The Sinitic language of this people, a variety of Mandarin written in the Cyrillic script.

Etymology

From Turkic [Term?], probably via Russian, originally referring to any Hui Chinese. It is an exonym. Chinese scholar Lin Tao compiles a list of possible etymologies in Donggan yü lungao (2007): * From Chinese 東甘 /东甘 (dōng Gān, literally “Eastern Gan[su]”) — by a Russian consul in Ghulja of the name Pavlinov. * From Chinese 敦煌 (Dūnhuáng, “Dunhuang”, in Gansu) — by M. A. Terentʹjev. * From Chinese 潼關 /潼关 (Tóngguān, “Tong Pass”, in Gansu), early site of Bai Yanhu's activity. * From Turkic turmaq > turupqaighan > tunggan (“stayed behind”) — by scholar С.李双贵. * From Chinese 東岸 /东岸 (dōng'àn, literally “eastern coast [or perhaps, eastern side]”), in reference to the Fen River — by Mantarô Hashimoto. Lin agrees with the 東岸 /东岸 (dōng'àn) theory, having found during studies individuals who self-identify as 東岸子 /东岸子. Hai Feng proposes in 2005 that it is from Chinese 屯墾 /屯垦 (túnkěn), from late Qing policy regarding Xinjiang.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.