There has been some confusion here between different senses of "Putonghua." So to clarify: article 19 of the constitution of the PRC says "The state promotes the nationwide use of Putonghua (common speech based on Beijing pronunciation)." Pursuant to this the government supported a huge project to create language standards close to Beijing usage, but deliberately not identical to any specific usage in Beijing. This went along with the character simplification and the creation of Hanyu Pinyin. These official standards are tested by the 普通話水平測試 and the HSK. Many jobs, especially in education and the media require some level on the 普通話水平測試. The standards have been lightly amended over time. I am asking about this official Putonghua. Numerous current and older dialects and usages called Putonghua in other contexts are not my concern now.

I am trying to find an official statement of the current standard, and I much prefer English for this (I expect it is a fairly long document). I am especially interested to know what words are officially given erhua. I am told some are, but not nearly so many as commonly get erhua in daily use in various parts of China.

I am not looking for help preparing for the HSK. That is widely available. I am trying to find the official standard.

  • What exactly is being asked here? – Mo. Aug 10 '14 at 15:28
  • @user3306356 Can anyone help me find an English version of the current official description of Putonghua? Or at least an official vocabulary list? – Colin McLarty Aug 10 '14 at 23:25
  • Wikipedias entry on Mandarin is no good? – Mo. Aug 11 '14 at 0:46
  • Wikipedia has no page on Mandarin. They have "Standard Chinese," which they regard as grouping many usages since 1900 in various Chinese speaking regions. That page refers to "the official definition of the People's Republic of China" but does not describe it. I am trying to find the current official definition, particularly which cases of erhua are official. – Colin McLarty Aug 11 '14 at 1:40
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this link shows you a collection of erhua vocabulary useful for Putonghua test.


this link allows you to know what these erhua sound like

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  • While these references seem authoritative, I have to point out in reality the degree of Erhua in the real Putonghua that people use is much less than in these references. In other word if you follow these rules you'll sound more Northern/Beijing-ish than the common understanding of Putonghua by people from China. For example, the first link listed 号码儿 and 戏法儿 which most people (including news broadcasters who are considered the de-facto standard of Putonghua pronunciation) choose not to Erhua when they are trying to speak Putonghua. – NS.X. Aug 14 '14 at 23:41
  • Thanks for a helpful answer. But this list combines the erhua in 普通话水平测试用普通话词语表 with that in the 现代汉语词典. A lot of web pages give at least parts of the 普通话水平测试用普通话词语表, spread out in groups of 100 at a time at separate URLs. I do not know if the whole could be assembled by following those. Or maybe some website has the whole thing but I have not found it yet. – Colin McLarty Aug 15 '14 at 12:04

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