The érhuà 兒化 process refers to sound changes, typically rhotacization, that occur in the root rime when the diminutive/hypocoristic ér affix is incorporated into a root syllable. Historically the diminutive/hypocoristic ér affix originates in the content morpheme ér 兒 'son, child' (Lǐ Sījìng 1986; Hsueh 1986; Li 1999). There are two major types of ér affixation across Chinese dialects: (i) the affix remains a separate syllable from the root; and (ii) the affix is incorporated into the root to produce a monosyllabic form, usually inducing phonologi…