Talk:Erhua

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The IPA given for "er" is incorrect. Both NPA (bo po mo fo) and Wade-Giles romanization clearly distinguish between "er" and "jih." Approximately the same distinction occurs in English. Saying "The star rode a donkey," will let the English speaker appreciate the lax tongue position in the case of the first "r" and the very active tongue curling and contact with the roof of the mouth in the second "r." The speaker of Mandarin can achieve the same result by saying "我女兒入醫院." (My daughter entered the hospital." P0M 07:44, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Since references are needed, here's one... this is from my Chinese-English Dictionary, Revised Edition, published in the PRC by the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. Copyright 9/1997, 16th printing, 4/2004, purchased in the PRC, as translated from Chinese.

Quote:

儿化 érhuà linguis. suffixation of a nonsyllabic 儿 (r) to nouns and sometimes verbs or adjectives, causing a retroflexion of the preceding vowel, typical of the pronunciation of standard Chinese and of some dialects -- see also 儿² ér

...and under 儿 (Second defition, the first is "child")

儿 ér (transcribed as r) suffix 1) (added to nouns to express smallness) ... 2) (added to verbs to form nouns) ... 3) (added to adjectives to form nouns) 4) (added to concrete nouns to change them into abstract nouns) ... 5）(added to nouns to form nouns with different meaning) 6) (a verb suffix very much restricted in use)

I cut the examples to save myself typing effort. ;）I can add them if people request it.

Kaerondaes 12:09, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Most Southern Chinese don't avoid the erhua sound because they have difficulty pronouncing it; rather they find it unpleasant and possibly even pretentious. Thus, they avoid it out of preference, not because they can't pronounce it. I edited the text to reflect this, since the "difficulty pronouncing" comment gave no references. However, I don't have any references on hand to support my assertion either, other than my own POV as a Southern Chinese, so I'd appreciate it if someone knows of any quotable references one way or the other.

Herbal.zh (talk) 19:12, 12 April 2008 (UTC)