Erhua

Erhua (simplified Chinese: 儿化; traditional Chinese: 兒化; pinyin: érhuà); also called erhuayin (simplified Chinese: 儿化音; traditional Chinese: 兒化音; pinyin: érhuàyīn) or erization, refers to a phonological process that adds r-coloring or the "ér" (儿) sound (transcribed in IPA as [ɚ]) to syllables in spoken Mandarin Chinese. It is most common in the speech varieties of North China, especially in the Beijing dialect, as a diminutive suffix for nouns, though some dialects also use it for other grammatical purposes. The Standard Chinese spoken in government-produced educational and examination recordings features erhua to some extent, as in 哪儿 nǎr ("where"), 一点儿 yìdiǎnr ("a little"), and 好玩儿 hǎowánr ("fun"). Colloquial speech in many northern dialects has more extensive erhua than the standardized language. Southwestern Mandarin dialects such as those of Chongqing and Chengdu also have erhua. By contrast, many Southern Chinese who speak non-Mandarin dialects may have difficulty pronouncing the sound or may simply prefer not to pronounce it, and usually avoid words with erhua when speaking Standard Chinese; for example, the three examples listed above may be replaced with the synonyms 哪里 nǎlǐ, 一点 yìdiǎn, 好玩 hǎowán.

Only a small number of words in standardized Mandarin, such as 二 èr "two" and 耳 ěr "ear", have r-colored vowels that do not result from the erhua process. All of the non-erhua r-colored syllables have no initial consonant, and are traditionally pronounced [ɚ] in Beijing dialect and in conservative/old Standard Mandarin varieties. In the recent decades, the vowel in the toned syllable "er" has been lowered in many accents, making the syllable come to approach or acquire a quality like "ar" (i.e. [aɚ̯] with the appropriate tone). In some new accents and some different accents than Beijing, all the non-erhua r-colored syllables (may) use "ar"-like qualities regardless of tones. All other instances of r-colored vowels are a result of erhua being applied to originally non-r-colored syllables.

Rules in Standard Mandarin

The basic rules controlling the surface pronunciation of erhua are as follows:

• Coda
  • /i/ and /n/ are deleted.
  • /ŋ/ is deleted and the syllable becomes nasalized.
  • /u/ becomes rhotacized.
• Nucleus
  • [ɛ] becomes centralized ([a]), and [e] can also be centralized ([ə]) in innovative varieties.
  • /ə/ and /u/ become rhotacized.
  • /i/ and /y/ become glides ([j] and [ɥ]).
  • [ɹ̩~ɻ̩] is deleted.

Following the rules that coda [i] and [n] are deleted, noted above, the finals in the syllables 把儿 (bàr), 伴儿 (bànr) 盖儿 (gàir) are all [aɚ̯]; similarly, the finals in the syllables 妹儿 (mèir) and 份儿 (fènr) are both also [ɚ]. The final in 趟儿 (tàngr) is similar but nasalized, because of the rule that the [ŋ] is deleted and the syllable is nasalized.

Because of the rule that [i] and [y] become glides, the finals of 气儿 (qìr) and 劲儿 (jìnr) are both [jɚ], and 裙儿 (qúnr) and 驴儿 (lǘr) are both [ɥɚ].

The following chart shows how the finals are affected by the addition of this suffix:^[1][2]

Beijing dialect

Aside from its use as a diminutive, erhua in the Beijing dialect also serves to differentiate words; for example, 白面 (báimiàn "flour") and 白面儿 (báimiànr "heroin", literally "white powder").^[3] Additionally, some words may sound unnatural without rhotacization, as is the case with 花/花儿 (huā/huār "flower").^[3] In these cases, the erhua serves to label the word as a noun (and sometimes a specific noun among a group of homophones). Since in modern Mandarin many single-syllable words (in which there are both nouns and adjectives) share the same pronunciation, adding such a label on nouns can reduce the complication. An example is the syllable wǎn which can mean "bowl" (碗), "gently" (婉) and "late" (晚), but only "碗儿" (wǎnr, bowl, or the little bowl) can have the erhua form.

Erhua is not always at the end of a word in Beijing dialect. Although it must occur at the end of the syllable, it can be added to the middle of many words, and there is not a rule to explain when it should be added to the middle. For example, 板儿砖 (bǎnrzhuān, "brick", especially the brick used as a weapon) should not be 板砖儿 (bǎnzhuānr).

It is also reported that many people have different classification or realization of erhua:^[4]

• Some differentiate -ar (nucleus a with no coda) from -anr/-air (nucleus a with coda -i/-n).
• Some merge -er (single e with erhua) with -enr/-eir, and this may phonologically depend on certain conditions, such as the tone and the preceding consonant.
• Some differentiate -ier and -üer ([jeɚ̯] and [ɥeɚ̯]) from -ir/-inr and -ür/-ünr respectively in tones 1 and 2.^[1]
• Some merge -uor with -uir/-unr.
• Some lose the nasalization in the case of -ng, and thus merge pairs like -ir/-ingr, -enr/-engr and -angr/-anr.

In other Mandarin varieties

Note: Tones in this part are marked by the tone diacritics of the corresponding tone in Standard Mandarin, and do not necessarily represent the actual realization of tones.

The realization and behavior of erhua are very different among Mandarin dialects. Some rules mentioned before are still generally applied, such as the deletion of coda [i] and [n] and the nasalization with the coda [ŋ]. Certain vowels' qualities may also change. However, depending on the exact dialect, the actual behavior, rules and realization can differ greatly.

Non-Mandarin varieties of Chinese

In some dialects of Taihu Wu Chinese, a similar phenomenon occurs with the word 儿. Instead of a rhotic ending, such erhua in Wu is in the form of nasals, such as [n] ~ [ɲ] ~ [ŋ].

For example, the word 麻将, Mahjong is actually 麻雀儿, in the form of erhua. The word 雀 [tsiaʔ] tsiah, with the word 儿 [ŋ] ng, becomes the word 将 [tsiaŋ] tsiang,^{[nb 1]} in other words mu tsiah 麻雀 becomes mu tsiang 麻将, a shortened form of mu tsiah ng 麻雀儿.

• 麻雀 (mu tsiah) → 麻雀儿/麻将 麻雀兒/麻將 (mu tsiang)
• 囡 (noe) → 囡儿/囡兒 (noe ng)
• 虾/蝦 (ho) → 虾儿/蝦兒 (hoe)

Notes

References

Look up 兒化 in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

External links