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Category Archives: érhuàyīn

Hang the wall on the gun

Scene: A towering glass and granite building located in Shangdi, suburban Beijing, the Silicon Valley of the capital city, not far from the comparatively puny corporate campuses of Google, Baidu, IBM, etc. The building top’s massive, fengshui-correct sculpture is only slightly obfuscated by the awkward bulk of the Beijing Sounds Studios name rendered in two [...]

Posted 06 January 2010 † syz § beijing-r § běijīnghuà § consonant elision § taxi § unexpected érhuàyīn ‡ Comments (19) °

Soundbites: bucks or dollarrrs

Zhonglish speakers learn pretty quick that you hardly ever hear yuán (元 = RMB, Chinese unit of money) in casual contexts; kuài (块) is the unit of choice, more common than “bucks” in the US.
But what about yuánr? This was a first for the BJS studios, from a discussion with a driver about taxi economics:
[Audio [...]

Posted 18 October 2009 † syz § BJS Daily § unexpected érhuàyīn ‡ Comments (5) °

Soundbites: Your *what* went bad?

Today’s pop quiz: Fill in the blank to name that lighting fixture component. Write it down so you can go to the store and buy it. Better yet, try to find it in a dictionary without using the English word that you already know.
24 hours to respond. Answer tomorrow. Winning entry receives usual jackpot. Terms [...]

Posted 16 October 2009 † syz § BJS Daily § consonant elision ‡ Comments (7) °

Soundbites: November(rrr)

As someone once said about music: do it once and it’s a mistake; do it twice and it’s a theme. For last week’s taxi driver, who hails from near the airport (NW [oops] NE outer suburbs), it’s shíyī yuèr (十一月儿 = November with plenty of R), twice baked.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
SJ: Wàiguórén [...]

Posted 15 October 2009 † syz § BJS Daily § unexpected érhuàyīn ‡ Comments (5) °

Soundbites: Little Grandpa

How many Mandarin-speakers add érhuàyīn (儿化音 = Beijing-R, i.e. rhotic pronunciation) onto lǎoyé (老爷 = “Grandpa”)?
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Zhǎodàole lǎoyér
找到了老爷儿
I found grandpa.
This calls for a survey. But as usual, the technical team is behind schedule and over budget in installing the requisite tools.
And how to translate lǎoyér? How about: “gramps”?
Update: the studios [...]

Posted 11 October 2009 † syz § BJS Daily § beijing-r § unexpected érhuàyīn ‡ Comments (7) °

Is the pirate’s Beijing Paradise in danger?

For those of you new to Talk Like a Pirate Day, it was first declared a Beijing Sounds staff holiday in 2008 when, reminded by Pinyin.info, a post was created to celebrate the R-ful Mandarin of the most rhotic city in Asia [feel free to quote that last phrase to your friends]. This year the [...]

Posted 18 September 2009 † syz § Beijinger Checklist / BJSLBC™ § EXMARaLDA transcriptions § Talk Like a Pirate Day § beijing-r ‡ Comments (6) °

Chickens and Loogies

On knowing what’s normal; a wán v. wánr (玩 / 玩儿) showdown; defining a Beijinger

Picture a Shàngdì spring day of 23° (73° for you folks back in Minneapolis) with a sky so blue even the Ministry of Environmental Protection can give Beijing a reasonably believable API of 53 . The apartment koi ponds brim with [...]

Posted 17 April 2009 † syz § beijing-r § běijīnghuà § wàidìrén ‡ Comments (12) °

Put back in place

On continuity in an age of fragmentation — lessons from YU

Right-sizing through consolidation seems to be a global trend. GM, for example, after sucking at the government teat a little too hard, is being asked to go from, well, the Chevy Suburban to the Tata Nano of the American car industry.
The Beijing Sounds Studios cannot [...]

Posted 05 April 2009 † syz § Yuèmǔ U. § beijing-r ‡ Comments (2) °