  We examine a wavefunction ansatz in which a doped hole can experience a
quantum transition from a charge $+e$ Landau quasiparticle to a neutral spinon
as a function of the underlying spin-spin correlation. As shown variationally,
such a wavefunction accurately captures all the essential features revealed by
exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group simulations in a
two-leg $t$-$J$ ladder. Hence its analytic form can provide an explicit
understanding of the mechanism for the unconventional ground state. The
transition in the phase diagram is accompanied by a change of the hole
composite from a tight charge-spin binding to a loosely-bound hole-spin pair.
In the latter, the hole carries a \emph{finite} spin current but with vanishing
charge current in the degenerate ground states. We show that the charge of the
hole composite here is dynamically diminished due to an internal relative
hole-spin motion, which is fundamentally distinct from a simple charge-spin
separation in a one-dimensional case. We further show that the same effect is
also responsible for a strong pairing between two doped holes in such a
non-Landau quasiparticle regime.
