The Dungan language: Traditions of academic study and new research paradigms

The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of scientific approaches to the study of the Dungan language throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries. Based on a retrospective review of a corpus of scholarly works, the main stages in the formation of Dungan studies as a distinct linguistic discipline are identified. The studies are systematized by country, chronology, and methodological direction, presented in the form of analytical tables and diagrams. Particular attention is paid to the shift in scientific paradigms: from structural and historical description to interdisciplinary research integrating methods of sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics, digital humanities, and artificial intelligence. It is concluded that the current stage is characterized by a transition from documentation and description to the forecasting of language changes and technologies for preserving linguistic heritage, which contributes to the theory of language contact and the methodology of preserving minority languages.

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