爾爾

Chinese

Etymology 1

		thus; so; like that thus; so; like that; you; thou	thus; so; like that thus; so; like that; you; thou
trad. (爾爾)		爾	爾
simp. (尔尔)		尔	尔

Pronunciation

Mandarin
(Pinyin): ěr'ěr

(Zhuyin): ㄦˇ ㄦˇ
Cantonese (Jyutping): ji⁵ ji⁵

Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)⁺
  - Hanyu Pinyin: ěr'ěr [Phonetic: érěr]
  - Zhuyin: ㄦˇ ㄦˇ
  - Tongyong Pinyin: ěr-ěr
  - Wade–Giles: êrh³-êrh³
  - Yale: ěr-ěr
  - Gwoyeu Romatzyh: eeleel
  - Palladius: эрэр (erɛr)
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /ˀɤɻ²¹⁴⁻³⁵ ˀɤɻ²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
  - Jyutping: ji⁵ ji⁵
  - Yale: yíh yíh
  - Cantonese Pinyin: ji⁵ ji⁵
  - Guangdong Romanization: yi⁵ yi⁵
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /jiː¹³ jiː¹³/

Adjective

爾爾

(literary) so-so (clarification of this definition is needed)

Derived terms

不過爾爾 / 不过尔尔 (bùguò'ěr'ěr)
聊復爾爾 / 聊复尔尔

Etymology 2

		thus; so; like that thus; so; like that; you; thou	thus; so; like that thus; so; like that; you; thou
trad. (爾爾)		爾	爾
simp. (尔尔)		尔	尔
alternative forms		耳耳定定領領／领领

Pronunciation

Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): niā-niā / nā-niā / nā-nā / nǐ-liǎ

Southern Min
- (Hokkien: Xiamen, Zhangzhou, General Taiwanese, Singapore)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: niā-niā
  - Tâi-lô: niā-niā
  - Phofsit Daibuun: niaxnia
  - IPA (Xiamen, Zhangzhou): /niã²²⁻²¹ niã²²/
  - IPA (Taipei): /niã³³⁻¹¹ niã³³/
  - IPA (Singapore): /nia²²⁻²¹ nia²²/
  - IPA (Kaohsiung): /niã³³⁻²¹ niã³³/
- (Hokkien: Xiamen, Singapore)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: nā-niā
  - Tâi-lô: nā-niā
  - Phofsit Daibuun: naxnia
  - IPA (Xiamen): /nã²²⁻²¹ niã²²/
  - IPA (Singapore): /na²²⁻²¹ nia²²/
- (Hokkien: Xiamen)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: nā-nā
  - Tâi-lô: nā-nā
  - Phofsit Daibuun: naxna
  - IPA (Xiamen): /nã²²⁻²¹ nã²²/
- (Hokkien: Quanzhou)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: nǐ-liǎ
  - Tâi-lô: nǐ-liǎ
  - IPA (Quanzhou): /nĩ²² lia²²/

Particle

爾爾

(Hokkien, at the end of a phrase) just; simply; that's all; nothing more; is all

Synonyms

云爾 (yún'ěr) (literary)
但定 (nā-tiāⁿ) (Min Nan)
定定 (Hakka)
罷了 / 罢了
而已 (éryǐ)

Dialectal synonyms of 而已 (“(sentence-final particle) just; simply”) [map]

Variety	Location	Words edit
Classical Chinese		而已, 云爾
Formal (Written Standard Chinese)		而已, 罷了
Northeastern Mandarin	Beijing	罷了
	Taiwan	而已
	Malaysia	罷了
	Singapore	而已
Jianghuai Mandarin	Yangzhou	罷了
Cantonese	Guangzhou	啫, 咋, 之嘛
	Hong Kong	啫, 咋, 之嘛
	Jiangmen (Xinhui)	啫, 之嘛
	Taishan	之嘛, 咋
	Kaiping (Chikan)	之嘛, 逸, 咿
	Enping (Niujiang)	之嘛, 咋
	Singapore (Guangfu)	啫, 之嘛
Hakka	Miaoli (N. Sixian)	定定
	Pingtung (Neipu; S. Sixian)	定定
	Hsinchu County (Zhudong; Hailu)	定定, 定
	Taichung (Dongshi; Dabu)	忒等
	Hsinchu County (Qionglin; Raoping)	定定
	Yunlin (Lunbei; Zhao'an)	定
Southern Min	Xiamen	爾爾, 爾
	Quanzhou	爾爾, 爾
	Zhangzhou	爾爾, 爾
	Tainan	爾爾
	Penang (Hokkien)	爾
	Singapore (Hokkien)	爾, 爾爾
	Jieyang	定

Further reading

“爾爾”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.