hey, “International Talk Like a beijingR Day” was yesterday
Well, everyone else gets just one International Talk Like a Pirate Day, which was yesterday. But if you live in Beijing and missed it, don’t worry. Every day there is “Talk Like a Pirate Day”.
In the Beijing dialect, tons of words lose their final consonant and instead end in a strong retroflex ‘R’. For example, “zài nălĭ” (在那里, “where?”) becomes “zài năr” (在那儿), “wán” (玩, “play”) becomes “wánr” (玩儿).
If you study Chinese, try adding the curled-tongue Beijing R to a few words every now and again. Ask your Beijingr friends which words to arrrr, or just listen closely to a Beijing taxi driver sometime and attempt to figure out what he’s saying. It’s fun.
February 11th, 2008 at 5:44 am
Hi…..and thanks for the comments on Beijinghua! Actually,It is infinitely more than simply tacking on the “R”,although this process,called erization,is distinctive and the two examples you gave are good ones.
There is concern about the withering away of the folk culture,and language,which adds so much to the charm of old Beijing.Urban development is destroying many of the old hutongs which are reservoirs of folk culture and language.Both the press and the expat community have expressed hope that we can all pull together to keep the flame alive.Fortunately the pronunciation of Putunghua is based in Beijing Dialect,but there is much more and relatively few of the delightfully distinctive folk expressions have been incorporated into the National Language. All these are powerful incentives to work toward the preservation of Beijing tu hua!