What does lah mean?
I see this used by a number of Malaysian bloggers and have been wondering what it meant. I’ve been reading up on this one for two days, and this one had no simple answer. I’ll explain what I found. Lah has no one specific meaning. It means different things according to what it is said with.
According to the Manglish wikipedia page, it’s used to affirm a statement, like some Americans say of course.
According to the Singlish wikipedia page, it’s used to indicate understanding, like some Americans say you know. The Singlish page continues to say that lah can be used to change a verb into a command, to reassure, to emphasize items or to refer to something already discussed.
According to Mr Brown’s page, lah is one of eleven particles used and demonstrates strong assertion, and is the equivalent of an English pragmatic particle. A pragmatic particle is a particle that may be used to express agreement or negation. For those unfamiliar, according to the dictionary pragmatics is the study of the meanings and usage of language that depends on the speaker, the listenermand the context.
I’m with Mr Brown on this one. His explanation of it made the most sense.
November 29th, 2007 at 7:08 pm
Hhehhee!! confusing.. ?? no lah..! actually .. we used it for just about everything and anything. Asians especially the malaysians and singaporeans.. we have so many different races co-living together.. so an indian .. living in malaysia or singapore..also uses the lah.. ma.. wor.. ka.. and a few more.. to end our sentences.
You can use it.. like these..
No lah.. i haven’t eaten.
Yes lah.. you gotta do this.
Really .. ka..?? i can’t believe he said this.
No money wor.. so not going shopping
Don’t be angry ma.. talk to him again.
I’ve been in Canada for 7 yrs now… traveled widely for work before migrating and married to a Canadian.. but i love my lahs.. and mahs..
My spouse is caucasian.. but he sure knows all about the lahs and mahs.. .. he has so much fun making fun of how i speak.. muahahahha!!
November 29th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
Thanks for visiting. I like to learn new things, which is why I tried to research that topic. I think it’s interesting. We just don’t use any one or two words like that generally. What is the difference between lah and mah?