Rime change (biànyùn 變韻) is a kind of rule-governed alternation of rimes, accompanied in some cases with change of tone or onset, that derives new words or changes the meaning of a word (there is a superordinate term, biànyīn 變音, which also covers change of tone or onset not involving a rime change). For example, in Pǔtōnghuà 普通話, gài 蓋 ‘to lid’ becomes gàir 蓋_兒 ‘lid’ through the rhotacization of its rime. There are three types of rime changes in Chinese dialects: ér rime change (ér biànyùn 兒變韻), zǐ rime change (zǐ bià…