The dynamics of rhotacisation in North-East Mandarin

In Northeastern Mandarin, rhotacization is an oral phenomenon related to the rhotic vowel appearing in rhymes suffixed with - (sic) /(sic)/ and it occurs only in a specific context, when there is the creation of a complex unit by derivation. In rhotacization, we see that fusion occurs usually between the vowel phoneme of the entering morpheme and the phoneme /(sic)/, which becomes a single rhotacized vowel. The complex unit is therefore monosyllabic. This phenomenon is called "fused rhotacization" which is different from "punctuated rhotacization" occurring in other varieties of Mandarin