What Does แหน่ะ Mean?

[djayz]

I've been following this thread for a long time - and learning from it. I hope someone can help me with the following:

ไปไหนมาไม่เจอคุณตั้งนานแหน่ะ ( bpai năi maa mâi jer koon dtâng naan ) meaning: Where did you go, didn't / haven't see you for a long time.

The problem is แหน่ะ at the end of the sentence... I don't understand what it means and haven't been able to find a translation / explanation anywhere.

Any one know what it means? ขอบคุณครับ

[Trevor]

It's just a stress particle, like 'lah' in Malay, 'le' in Chinese or "!" in English. Low tone, short vowel sound, with a catch in breath: naeh'

Edited March 23, 2008 by Trevor

[katana]

The Structure of Spoken Thai - James Higbie and Snea Thinsan describe the particle แหน่ะ as being used to show that an amount is considered large. So I guess it could be referring to the long time that you two haven't met.

In English, we would use intonation in our voice to mark this.