by DonSena » Mon Feb 27, 2012 11:17 pm
The second-position particleแหละ has these two variants หละ and เออะ that are in “free variation” – the speaker can just as easily use one or the other. An emphatic variant exists (or at least used to exist), แหล่, which is uttered with loud sustained stress. The principle meaning of these particles is “So, that’s it! That must be what it is! It’s this (and not that, or some other thing)!”
คุณนิ่แหละค่ะ ชอบคบกับผู้หญิง You (you’re the one who) really likes to make out with the girls!
ผมไม่ได้ไปไหนเลยหละ I didn’t go anywhere at all (got it?)!
ชื่อจริงของผม ดอนเออะครับ My real name is (I mean it’s this!) Don.
เท่านั้นเออะ That’s it, now / That’s all, now.
จริงน่ะแหละค่ะ That’s right!—You got it!
The coda-phrase here consists of three consecutive particles: position-one particle น่ะ (that thing), position-two particle แหละ (that is it!) and position-three ค่ะ (I, a female).
นั่นแหล่ ผมบออกแล้วมั้ยล่ะ That’s just it! Didn’t I tell you already, huhh??!
The แหล่ is uttered with full voice, at a sustained level of intensity. The second sentence contains the position-one particle มั้ย (subjective question) followed by position-two particle ล่ะ (demand an answer). The occurrence of ล่ะ excludes the occurrence of any other position-two particle (including แหล) in this same sentence clause.
The coda-phrase is an ordered sequence of zero to four clause-final sentence particles. While the total inventory of these particles is sizable, each can occur only in a certain one of the four positions. All of the particles that occur in a particular position (or “slot”) are necessarily in “complimentary distribution,” that is, all those that occur in, say, position two are mutually exclusive -- at most, only one can occur in second position.
