The fickle ‘r’ sound – First-Year Chinese Learning Hub

What is a “r” sound?

The fickle “r” sound also know as Erhua (érhuà ),erization or rhotacization of syllable finals) is a phonological process that adds r-coloring or the “er” sound (transcribed in IPA as [ɚ]) to syllables in spoken Mandarin Chinese.

Erhuayin is the pronunciation of “er” after rhotacization of syllable finals. It is most common in the speech varieties of North China, especially in the Beijing dialect, asa 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 哪兒 nǎr (“where”), 一點兒yìdiǎnr (“a little”), and 好玩兒 hǎowánr (“fun.”)

Colloquial speech in many northern dialects has more extensive erhua than the standardized language.

By contrast, many Southern Chinese who speak their own languages 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 哪裡 nǎlǐ, 一點 yìdiǎn, 好玩 hǎowán.

Furthermore, “erhua” is extremely rare or absent in Taiwanese Mandarin speakers. 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 erhuaprocess. 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.”

The Beijing dialect, also known as the “Peking dialect,” have a prominent “r” sound compared to many other Chinese dialects.

While it is true that Standard Mandarin pronunciation has been influenced by the Beijing dialect, it’s important to note that Standard Mandarin seeks to create a standardized and unified pronunciation across various Chinese dialects.

The role of “erhua” in distinguishing word meanings in Chinese:

One point that needs to be emphasized is that the “erhua” sound is also an important component of Standard Mandarin, as some erhua words can distinguish meanings. Mastering the pronunciation of these erhua words is key to speaking Mandarin well.