Standard Chinese Phonology - The Rhotic Coda

The Rhotic Coda

Standard Chinese also uses a rhotic consonant, /ɻ /. This usage is a unique feature of Mandarin dialects, especially the Beijing dialect; other dialects lack this sound. In Chinese, this feature is known as Erhua. There are two cases in which it is used:

1. In a small number of words, such as 二 èr "two", 耳 ěr "ear", etc. All of these words are pronounced with no initial consonant.
2. As a noun suffix -兒/-儿 -r. The suffix combines with the final, and regular but complex changes occur as a result.

The "r" final must be distinguished from the retroflex consonant written ⟨ri⟩ in pinyin and in IPA. "The star rode a donkey" in some rhotic English accents, and 我女兒入醫院/我女儿入医院 Wǒ nǚ'ér rù yīyuàn "My daughter entered/enters the hospital" in Standard Chinese, both have a first r pronounced with a relatively lax tongue, and a the second /r/ sounds involving an active retraction of the tongue and contact with the top of the mouth.

In other Mandarin dialects, the rhotic consonant is sometimes replaced by another syllable, such as li, in words that indicate locations. For example, 這兒/这儿 zhèr "here" and 那兒/那儿 nàr "there" become 這裡/这里 zhèli and 那裡/那里 nàli, respectively.