杭州方言里儿尾的发音

A note on the articulation of the 儿·er suffix in the Hángzhōu dialect

北京话的儿尾——譬如“一会儿”[i(?) xu(?)r(?)]和“玩意儿”[uan(?) i(?)r(?)]里的儿尾——是北京话的一个特点,而针对这个儿尾的语音性质和确切的发音方法有不少专著,因此一般研究汉语的人都很熟悉。容易被人忽略的是很多汉语方言也有儿尾,只是发音常常跟北京话不一样罢了。在北方很多官话方言都有这个词尾。有的发音跟北京话相似,比方昌黎的‘欛儿’[par(?)]和‘瓜儿’[kua(?)]是卷舌韵;有的发音跟北京话不一样,比方保定的儿尾自成音节念[(?)r],又曹东庄的儿尾是[(?)]尾。在南方吴方言有的也有儿尾。在这些方言里。

The 儿·er suffix is found in a variety of articulations in many of the Chinese dialects. In the North, in Mandarin dialects, the suffix is frequently found and is often phonetically quite similar to the well studied Beijing form, for example Ch(?)ngl(?) [par(?)]'handle' and [kua(?)] 'melon'. Or it may take other slightly different forms, for example as a separate syllable [(?)r] in B(?)oding and as a final [(?)] in C(?)od(?)ngzhu(?)ng. The suffix is also found in the South in many Wu dialects. In these dialects it is usually in a form phonetically quite distinct from the Beijing counterpart, generally some kind of nasal,[(?)] in W(?)nzh(?)u, [n] in Yiw(?), and [(?)i] in L(?)ngqu(?)n for example. Also in the South in the Wu dialect area, Hangzhou is another dialect well known for its frequent use of theer suffix. But in Hangzhou the suffix has no nasal element. Its articulation is quite interesting and is described below.Published studies which mention this suffix in Hangzhou describe it as a lateral, pronounced [■l] or as a syllabic [■]. If this were the case, it should sound similar to the final syllable in American English 'seat, file, special, cudgel' or 'reddle, spittle, metal.' But it does not.In Hangzhou, the · er suffix is clearly articulated as a separate, atonic, syllable. It is not a lateral, however, but rather the rhotacized vowel [(?)] pronounced with the tip of the tongue raised in a retroflex position. It sounds very much like the vowel in the American English pronunciation of 'sir, her, fur,' but differs from the American vowel in that the tip of the tongue is clearly raised and brought to a position just behind the alveolar ridge. Often when a Hangzhou speaker articulates this suffix, as his or her tongue moves up into this position it strikes the alveolar ridge, producing a voiced alveolar flap - [(?)] - heard just before the vowel and the suffix is thus rendered as [(?)(?)]. With the added flap, the sound produced comes close to that of the final syllable in the American English pronunciation of 'water, ladder, fatter, putter.'