Variation of [kháʔ] and [khàʔ] in Written Thai and Its Relation to Users’ Knowledge of Tone Marking System

Abstract

In recent years, the final particles [kháʔ] and [khàʔ] have been used in written texts widely in a different way from grammarians’ prescription. In the sociolinguistic view, the fact that native speakers use variants differing from the grammar is not considered as wrong usage but called as linguistic variation. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the use of the final particles [kháʔ] and [khàʔ] in written language from the linguistic variation perspective. Two objectives of this study are (1) to study characteristics of the variation of [kháʔ] and [khàʔ] in three sentential contexts, which are ending of declarative sentences, ending of questions, and after the final particle [náʔ], and (2) to examine the correlation between the use of variants [kháʔ] and [khàʔ] and the users’ knowledge in the Thai tone system. The data set was collected from 249 native speakers of Thai. The questionnaire used consists of two sections: (1) sentence completion with final particles [kháʔ] and [khàʔ] in three sentential contexts and (2) questions about tone marking system in Thai. The research shows that most of the informants use [kháʔ] and [khàʔ] correspondingly with Thai grammar. The population uses the variant different from the rule mostly with the word [náʔ]. Furthermore, the result shows that there is only a weak correlation between the use of the variants and the users’ knowledge of the tone marking system. It is not necessary that those who use the variant of [kháʔ] and [khàʔ] in accordance with grammar rule always have complete knowledge about the tone marking system.