Erhua
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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 [ɻ]) 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"), or 好玩儿 (hǎowánr) ("fun"). Colloquial speech in many northern dialects has more extensive erhua than the standardized language. Southwestern Mandarin dialects also have Erhua, for example, the dialect in Chongqing and Chengdu. By contrast, many Southern Chinese who speak non-Mandarin dialects may have difficulty pronouncing the sound or may simply find it distasteful, and for whatever reason usually avoid words with Erhua when speaking Standard Chinese, replacing the above examples with 哪里 (nǎlǐ), 一点 (yìdiǎn), or 好玩 (hǎowán).
Only a small number of words in standardized Mandarin, such as 二 "two" and 耳 "ear", have r-colored vowels that do not result from the erhua process. All of the non-erhua r-colored syllables are pronounced [ɑɻ] with no initial consonant. All other instances of r-colored vowels are a result of erhua applying to originally non-r-colored syllables.
In this page, a broad transcription is used, which may not show the exact pronunciation.
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[edit] Rules
The basic rules controlling the surface pronunciation of erhua are as follows:
- Coda [i] and [n] are deleted.
- Coda [ŋ] is deleted, but the syllable becomes nasalized.
- Main vowels [i] and [y] become glides and have a [ə] added, which is rhoticized to [əɻ].
- Certain vowels are changed: [a] becomes [ɑ]; [e] and [ɨ] become [ə]; [ɛ] in the finals [jɛn] and [ɥɛn] becomes [ɑ] (but remains [ɛ] in the final [jɛ]).
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 the same; they are all [ɑɻ]. 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 third rule, that [i] and [y] become glides and have a [ə] added, the finals of 气儿 (qìr) and 劲儿 (jìnr) are both [jəɻ], and 裙儿 (qúnr) and 驴儿 (lǘr) are both [ɥəɻ].
Since the final [ɨ] changes to [əɻ], the finals in 事儿 (shìr) and 字儿 (zìr) are the same as 妹儿 (mèir) and 份儿 (mènr), which are both also [əɻ].
Because of the rule that the [ɛ] in the finals [jɛn] changes to [ɑ], and the coda [n] is deleted, 家儿 (jiār) sounds the same as 尖儿 (jiānr), and 下儿 (xiàr) sounds the same as 馅儿 (xiànr). Similarly, the [ɛ] in [ɥɛn] also becomes [ɑ], so the final of 圈儿 (quānr) changes to [ɥɑɻ].
The following chart shows how the finals from the above chart are affected by the addition of this suffix:
| Nucleus | Coda (+rhotic) |
Medial | |||
| ∅ | i | u | y | ||
| a | ∅ | ɑɻ | jɑɻ | wɑɻ | |
| i | ɑɻ | wɑɻ | |||
| u | ɑʊɻ | jɑʊɻ | |||
| n | ɑɻ | jɑɻ | wɑɻ | ɥɑɻ | |
| ŋ | ɑ̃ɻ | jɑ̃ɻ | wɑ̃ɻ | ||
| ə | ∅ | ɤɻ | jɛɻ | wɔɻ | ɥœɻ |
| i | əɻ | wəɻ | |||
| u | oʊɻ | joʊɻ | |||
| n | əɻ | jəɻ | wəɻ | ɥəɻ | |
| ŋ | ə̃ɻ | jə̃ɻ | ʊ̃ɻ | jʊ̃ɻ | |
| ∅ | əɻ | jəɻ | uɻ | ɥəɻ | |
The behavior of retroflexed finals provides some evidence for the phonemic analysis of main vowels. The fact that [jɛn] and [ɥɛn] become [jɑɻ] and [ɥɑɻ] confirms their analysis as /ian/ and /yan/ (rather than /iən/ and /yən/), and the differing behavior of [ɨ] and [i] suggests that these should not be merged (contrary to Pinyin). The behavior of [ə] and [ɤ], however, is problematic, since it suggests that they should not be merged, contrary to most analyses. (An alternative, consistent with retroflex behavior, would be to merge [ə] and [ɨ] as a single /ə/ phoneme, and maintain [ɤ] as a separate phoneme occurring only in a single /ɤ/ final. Some evidence for this comes from standard Beijing pronunciation, where [ə] and [ɨ] are simple vowels but /ɤ/ is actually a diphthong [ɯʌ].)
[edit] 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").[1] Additionally, some words may sound unnatural without rhotacization, as is the case with 花/花儿 (huā/huār "flower").[1]
[edit] Examples
See: Mandarin phonology
- 一瓶 (yìpíng) (one bottle) → 一瓶儿 (yìpíngr), pronounced [i˥˩pʰĩɻ˧˥]
- 公园 (gōngyuán) (public garden) → 公园儿 (gōngyuánr), pronounced [kʊŋ˥ɥɑɻ˧˥]
- 小孩 (xiǎohái) (small child) → 小孩儿 (xiǎoháir), pronounced [ɕjɑʊ̯˨˩xɑɻ˧˥]
- 事 (shì) (thing) → 事儿 (shìr), pronounced [ʂɚ˥˩]
[edit] In 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, in other words mu tsiah 麻雀 becomes mu tsiang 麻将, a shortened form of mu tsiah ng 麻雀儿. Such Erhua is especially common in Hangzhou dialect.
- 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)
