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With the sentence:

「僕は今度遠い所へ行くからね、その前一寸お前に遭いに来たよ。」

"I am leaving now to go to a far away place, so before that I came to meet you for a short time."

Assuming I read that right, then it seems like the ね is a sentence-ending particle sitting at the end of the 1st clause in this compound sentence ("I am leaving now to go to a far away place").

So that leads me to two questions:

  1. Can sentence-ending particles (よ, ね, な, etc) be used at the end of independent clauses in a compound sentence?
  2. If this ね isn't the "seek agreement" particle, then what is it? An interjection?
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Can sentence-ending particles (よ, ね, な, etc) be used at the end of independent clauses in a compound sentence?

ね is different from other sentence particles in that it has no restrictions on the forms it can follow. See page 4 of Japanese the Spoken Language Part 2.

If this ね isn't the "seek agreement" particle, then what is it? An interjection?

As mentioned in chapter 10 of Japanese: The Spoken Language Part 1, a sentence is frequently broken up into shorter spans, with ね (often ね？or ね！ or even ねぇ) added to the nonfinal sentences. These uses of ね are meant to indicate the speaker's request for あいづち, i.e. a confirmation from the listener that they are paying attention and are involved in the conversation, in the form of at least a firm nod, but often a verbalization like はい or ええ or even a form of そう.

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  • Can I then assume that the other sentence particles (よ, な, ぞ, etc) cannot be used at the end of independent clauses? And as a side question, can な also be used without restrictions like ね?
    – Hyperglyph
    Mar 3, 2018 at 19:24
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    I had a feeling you'd ask that. In the English sense, an independent clause is a sentence, so naturally, they can be used. However, ね can follow anything, including dependent clauses (as in your example after から) or even single nominals. Other sentence particles normally cannot. When か follows something it actually creates a sentence (possibly a minor one, as in the case with imbedded questions). な is related to ね but I think it belongs only at the end of independent clauses (including following か). さ is a filler word so I think it can follow anything, like ね. Learn it case-by-case.
    – weirdalsuperfan
    Mar 4, 2018 at 4:17
  • To clarify, here から ends a minor sentence, not a major sentence. Sentence particles generally end major sentences.
    – weirdalsuperfan
    Mar 4, 2018 at 4:28

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