Xiao'erjing, Xiaorjing, Xiaojing or Benjing, is a Perso-Arabic script used to write Sinitic languages, including Lanyin Mandarin, Zhongyuan Mandarin, Northeastern Mandarin, and Dungan. It is used on occasion by many ethnic minorities who adhere to Islam in China—mostly the Hui, but also the Dongxiang and the Salar—and formerly by their Dungan descendants in Central Asia. Orthographic reforms introduced the Latin script and later the Cyrillic script to the Dungan language, which continue to be used today.
Xiao'erjing is written from right to left, like other Perso-Arabic writing systems.
Xiao'erjing is unusual among Arabic script-based writing systems in that all vowels, long and short, are explicitly notated with diacritics, making it an abugida. Some other Arabic-based writing systems in China, such as the Uyghur Arabic alphabet, use letters and not diacritics to mark short vowels.
