Tai Peoples and Theirs Languages: A Preliminary ... - Khamkoo

‘You don’t buy this thing again’
wife- thammay lâ? khá?
why final particle final particle
‘Why? (with politeness final particle)’
husband- man mây dii rɔ̀ɔk
It negative good final particle
particle
‘It is not quite good’. (with final particle of diminution)
wife- kɔ̂ɔ sǘü maa lέεw nîa?
particle buy come particle final particle
showing
past tense
‘But I’ve already bought it’.
husband- ?aw pay thíŋ sá?
take go abandon final particle
‘You can throw it away’.
Final particles (underlined for quick identification) in the conversation above
have no direct translation into English. One may be able to understand almost all the
information and translate the above examples into acceptable English without most of
these final particles; however, their presence is very important to Tai speakers who want
to have a smooth, clear and polite conversation. All the underlined words are what
linguists call final particles, and their major function is to reveal the speaker’s attitude,
mood, emotion, the desire to be polite, the desire to diminish conflict, the desire to make
amends, etc. Final particles sometimes identify the relationship between the speaker and
the addressee (s). In the case that there is one speaker but more than one addressee of
unequal status, it is the final particles that help identify to which addressee the speaker
wishes to direct each of his statements. Patcharin Peyasantiwong (1981: 3) saw the final
particles in this way. “They function as a major part of the meta-language of Thai and are
generally the most puzzling phenomenon for the non-native student of the language”.
The use of final particles can also identify the speaker as coming from which
part of Thailand as most final particles are dialect-specific. For example, women from the
Northern part of Thailand end their sentences with the final particle “cáw”. Speakers from
the Northeast part of Thailand prefer to end their sentences with the final particle “dəə”.
Some final particles are appended to the name of the dialect to show that the speakers of
that dialect prefer to end their sentences with that final particle; for example, speakers of
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