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Category Archives: unexpected 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 ‡ 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 ‡ Comments (5) °

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 ‡ 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 § érhuàyīn ‡ Comments (7) °