2 answers
The speakers you have encoutered may be adding Erhua which is common in the Beijing dialect of Mandarin.
The '-er' that is added serves various semantic purposes (e.g. diminutive suffix) and is considered standard in PRC issued education and examination guidelines for the Standard Chinese (Mandarin) language. It is possible that the speaker is instinctively using erhua when they intend to communicate a similar modification of idea while speaking English.
"even before a consonant"
In Mandarin, syllables are constructed of initials, finals, and a tone. The next initial (following consonant) doesn't affect the pronunciation of finals. See Pinyin.
Assuming that the final ɹ you are hearing is unique to something about the Chinese language, it is unlikely that the following consonants would affect the habit.
Source
Li, Charles N., and Sandra A. Thompson. “Word Structure, 3.2.1 Affixation, C.1 -er.” Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar, University of California Press, 1989, pp. 39.
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| User | Comment | Date |
|---|---|---|
| msh210 | (no comment) | Jun 19, 2023 at 18:59 |
This is not something unique to Chinese, it is most commonly seen with British speakers: https://languages.codidact.com/posts/288307
The Chinese were historically much more exposed to British, in particular to upper-class British English. I suspect that a legacy of that is taking up some of their phonological habits. English instruction in China, like many other countries, probably uses https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Received_Pronunciation as a basis since that's often taken as "the" English.
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