The state radio station of Kyrgyzstan offers a weekly broadcast in Dungan, which is basically a spin-off of northwestern Mandarin with lots of loan words from Persian, Arabic, and Russian. Of particular interest is that the language — which, permit me to note again, is basically Mandarin — is written with an alphabet (at present, one based on the Cyrillic alphabet). Chinese characters are of course not necessary and are not used. For details of the language, script, and people, see Implications of the Soviet Dungan Script for Chinese Language Reform, by Victor H. Mair, and Ethnolinguistic Notes on the Dungan, by Lisa E. Husmann and William S-Y. Wang (available online in Schriftfestschrift: Essays in Honor of John DeFrancis on His Eightieth Birthday, pp. 71-84).
The Dungan radio show is broadcast on Mondays between 6:35 and 7:05 p.m., Taipei time (4:35-5:05 a.m. U.S. central standard time). The show usually starts closer to 6:40 and ends about 7:03.
I made a recording of the latest broadcast (Dec. 31, 2007): Dungan radio broadcast (23 MB mp3).
[Here’s another: Dungan radio broadcast, January 14, 2008 (23 MB mp3).]
I mainly understand words, not entire sentences, though my comprehension improves a little with repeated listenings.
This Kyrgyz radio station (Кыргызское радио) is available through at least three different Internet links:
- www.radio.kg/RadioKTR.asx
- www.radio.kg/RadioKTR.ram
- mms://212.42.102.212:8554/RadioKTR, which is what you get by using the “Kyrgyz radio” link on the Web site for the State Broadcast Company of the Kyrgyz Republic
I have had the best luck with link no. 1.
I made the recording with Total Recorder for Windows and edited it in Audacity.
I’ve heard that Mac users can get good results with Audio Hijack.
