って Particle

In Japanese, tte って is a quoting particle. It's sometimes used as the casual counterpart of the to と particle, but it has other uses, too, like mentioning things in order to refer to them.

Usage

Direct Quotations

The basic usage of tte って is to mark the words that were said when it's used with a verb of communication.

Tarou wa "hai" tte itta
太郎は「はい」って言った
[He] said yes.
Tarou wa "hai" tte kotaeta
太郎は「はい」って答えた
Tarou answered "yes."
Tarou wa "hai" tte kaita
太郎は「はい」って書いた
Tarou wrote "yes."

In the sentences above, tte って can be replaced by to と. For example: to itta と言った.

Indirect Quotations

The tte って particle can come after a phrase surrounded by quotation marks 「」 like above, but they aren't necessary.

Tarou wa hai tte itta
太郎ははいって言った
Tarou said yes.
{tachi-iri-kinshi tte kakareta} kanban
立入禁止って書かれた看板
A signboard [which] {entry-prohibited was written on}. (no entry, no trespassing, etc.)

The quotation particle can also be used with verbs about hearing:

shinda tte kiita
死んだって聞いた
[I] heart that "[he] died."

And with sentences about confirming things that were said:

shinda tte hontou ka?
死んだって本当か？
Is it true that "[he] died"?

Thoughts

The tte って particle can also be used with verbs for thoughts:

sugee tte omotta
すげぇって思った
[I] thought "[that's] awesome."

This, too, can be replaced by just to と, as in: to omotta と思った.

In fact, it seems that even in casual contexts, the collocation to omou と思う is more common than tte omou って思う.^{(Nilep and Fujimoto:2017:4–5)}

I guess that tte って is used more with verbs that mean to say, to hear, to write, to read, because with those verbs the message quoted is literally somewhere: it can be literally heard or seen.

It's not used with verbs that mean to think, because what you think about doing is usually not a literal quote. For example:

kore ni tsuite hanasou to omoimasu
これについて話そうと思います
[I] thought: to talk about this.

Sentences in the format above are common, where the verb before to と is what you plan to do, in this ~ou ～oう form. What this form means is that you intend to do something in the future.

It often translates to "let's," as an invite, but it can be used when you're going to do something on your own, too. What you think about doing today, for example: to talk about this.

Naturally, the speaker hasn't literally thought the sentence kore ni tsuite hanasou. That's just the way the speaker formulated his intentions in words. This is different from, for example:

"abunee!" tte omotta
「危ねぇ！」って思った
"[That's] dangerous!" is what I thought.

The words sugoi すごい, "incredible," and abunai 危ない, "dangerous," are examples of things you can literally think inside your head. You see something dangerous, you literally think: "wow, that's dangerous."

Even if you don't say it out loud, its literality allow it to be quotable with the tte って particle.

Definitions

The tte って particle can also be used to define things.

This can happen when it comes before the verb iu 言う, "to say," becoming the construction tte-iu っていう, which is used to say "how you say something," or "how something is called." The name of a thing.

kore wa neko tte iu-n-da
これは猫って言うんだ
This is said cat. (literally.)
This is called a cat.

Compare with:

kono kanji wa "neko" tte yomu-n-da
この漢字は「ネコ」って読むんだ
This kanji is read "neko."

Without Verb

The tte って particle is sometimes used without a verb, expressing a function by itself. This can happen in various ways.

Categorization

The tte って particle can categorize the noun that comes before it using the noun that comes after it. For example:

jinsei tte mon da
人生ってもんだ
The thing which is life.
- Life is a thing, so "thing" categorizes "life."
- mon もん is the same thing as mono 物, "thing."
- This phrase is generally used to say "that's how things are in life," "that's how life is," and so on.
ore tte yatsu
俺ってやつ
The guy which is me.
- I'm a guy, so "guy" categorizes "me."
- This phrase is used to say "this is the kind of guy I am." Often, it's used in a negative way:
- ore tte yatsu wa dou shiyou mo nai
  俺ってやつはどうしようもない
  To the guy which is me, what to do doesn't exist.
  For a guy like me, nothing can be done.
  I'm incorrigible.
- omae tte yatsu
  お前ってやつ
  The guy which is you.

In the cases above, tte って can be replaced by to iu という. Then we have an usual relative clause. For example:

{jinsei to iu} mono da
人生というものだ
A thing [which] {is called life}.
{jinsei tte iu} mono da
人生っていうものだ
(same meaning.)

Hearsay

The tte って particle can mark a clause which is "said," and this saying then qualifies the noun:

{Tarou ga bengoshi da} tte hanashi
太郎が弁護士だって話
The story that says: {Tarou is a lawyer}.
{ashita yuki ga furu} tte yohou
明日雪が降るって予報
The forecast that says: {tomorrow, it will snow}.
- yuki ga furu
  雪が降る
  Snow will fall from the sky. (literally.)
  It will snow.

The examples above can be alternated with to iu と言う.^{(Hirose and Nawata, 2016:5–6)}

{Tarou ga bengoshi da to iu} hanashi
太郎が弁護士だと言う話
A story [that] {says Tarou is a lawyer}.
{Tarou ga bengoshi da tte iu} hanashi
太郎が弁護士だって言う話
(same meaning.)

The presence or omission of tte って can change the meaning of the sentence. For example:^{(Hirose and Nawata, 2016:5)}

kinou, Tarou wa Hanako ni atta
昨日、太郎は花子に会った
Yesterday, Tarou met Hanako.
{kinou Tarou ga atta} hito
昨日太郎が会った人
The person [which] {Tarou met yesterday}.
{kinou Tarou ga atta} tte hito
昨日太郎が会ったって人
The person which [someone] said: Tarou met yesterday.

In sentence 2, it's a fact, or at least it's assumed to be a fact, that Tarou met with that person. By contrast, in sentence 3, the speaker qualifies "the person" with something they've heard about: someone said "Tarou met [that person] yesterday."

In other words, in sentence 3, the speaker is explicitly expressing the information is hearsay. They aren't claiming Tarou met with that person. They've just heard that Tarou met with that person. It could be a lie, they don't know.

Note that, with the quoting particles tte って and to と, the content clause preceding them is in the predicative, but relative clauses are in the attributive.

Normally this isn't a problem since most words are identical in both predicative form, shuushikei 終止形, and attributive form, rentaikei 連体形.

However, the predicative copula da だ becomes the attributive copula na な in the attributive.　Observe:

Tarou wa {anime ga suki da}
太郎はアニメが好きだ
{Liked is true about anime} is true about Tarou.
{Anime is liked} is true about Tarou.
Tarou likes anime.
- Double-subject construction.
{anime ga suki da} tte hito
アニメが好きだって人
A person that [someone] said: likes anime.
A person that says "[I] like anime." (they say it themselves.)
{anime ga suki na} hito
アニメが好きな人
A person [who] {likes anime}.
*{anime ga suki na} tte hito
~~アニメが好きなって人~~
(invalid.)

Since the content clause before tte って must be predicative, it can't end with the attributive copula na な. Note, however, that the na な particle has other uses, some of which can precede tte って.

Topic-Marker

The tte って particle can be used to mark the topic of a sentence. For example:

胸の小さい女子って、そのコトを気にしてる場合が多いらしいぜ。って、３組の木村さんが･･･！！

Manga: Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san からかい上手の高木さん (Chapter 2: プール)

Context: Nishikata remembers something he heard from someone who heard it from someone else.
{mune no chiisai} joshi tte,
{sono koto wo
ki-ni-shiteru} baai ga
ooi rashii ze.
胸の小さい女子って、
そのコトを
気にしてる場合が
多いらしいぜ。
Speaking of girls [with] {small chests},
I heard that,
the cases [in which they] {be worrying about that are many}.
- i.e. there's a rumor flatter-chested girls often have complexes about it.
- ki ni suru 気にする
  To mind. To think about. To care about. To worry about.
- {mune no chiisai} joshi is a relativized possessive double-subject construction with a no の subject marker.
tte, san-kumi no
Kimura ga...!!
って、３組の
木村さんが…！！
Is what Kimura from the class 3 said!!
- Kimura is marked as subject (Kimura ga) of a sentence that has no verb.
- Because of the quoting particle tte, we can safely assume the implicit verb is supposed to be "to say," iu 言う.
- Kimura ga itta
  木村が言った
  Kimura said.

Above, Kimura provides information regarding the topic mune no chiisai joshi, which is marked by the tte って particle.

Note that, generally, it's the wa は particle that marks the topic in Japanese. There are differences between tte って and wa は used to mark topics, but they're a bit complicated so I'll explain about them in another article.

At Sentence End

The tte って particle sometimes appears at the end of the sentence. This can happen for various reasons.

Ellipsis

First and foremost, it happens when the verb is omitted.

Normally, this happens with verb itta 言った, "said."

For example, if someone asked you: "what did he say?" The presence or omission of tte って changes the meaning of the sentence.

shiranai
知らない
[I] don't know [what he said].
[I] don't care.
shiranai tte
知らないって
[He] said: "[I] don't know."
[He] said: "[I] don't care."

In the case above, tte って abbreviates tte itta って言った, "said."

The tte って particle can also be used to quote yourself. For example, if you say something once, but someone else insists, the tte って particle can be added to emphasize you've already said something. Observe:

daijoubu
大丈夫
[It's] alright.
(insert insistence here.)
daijoubu tte!
大丈夫って！
[I] said: "[it's] alright"!

In this case, tte って abbreviate tte itte-iru って言っている, "[I] am saying" it's alright.

Although unusual, the lone, final tte って can also imply the verb omotta 思った, "thought," rather than "said." In this case, it easily comes in the form of: ka naa tte かなぁって.

atarashii no wo kaou ka naa tte
新しいのを買おうかなぁって
[I was thinking:] to buy a new one.

The verb omou 思う can be abbreviated because ka naa かなぁ expresses the speaker was wondering about something, in this case, they were wondering about "buying a new one," so it's implied that's a thought of theirs, not a spoken line of somebody.

Second Vocative

The tte って particle is sometimes used after somebody's name to address them, specially when calling their attention for the second time.^{(Hirose and Nawata, 2016:18–20)}

For example:

oi, Tarou!
おい、太郎！
Hey, Tarou!
Tarou tte!
太郎って！
Taroooou!
Tarou tte ba!!!
太郎ってば！！！
Taroooouuuuu!!!

The ba ば used above doesn't seem to have much purpose besides emphasis. In Naruto, he says tte ba yo ってばよ, which is similar, but ends in the assertive yo よ particle.

This is similar to the to itte-iru と言っている, "[I] am saying," that we've seen before.

hayaku koi tte!
早く来いって！
Come quickly! (I'm saying this again.)
Come quickly! (somebody else said this.)
okiro tte! okiro tte ba!
起きろって！起きろってば！
[Wake up! I'm telling you to] wake up! Wake up!

Origin

The exact origin of the tte って particle is hard to say. Given that it can be used in multiple ways, it's very possible that there are different origins for its different functions.

One possible origin is to te とて, an obsolete combination of the quoting to と particle plus the te て used the in the conjunctive te-form.^{(Hirose and Nawata, 2016:4, and the dictionary 大辞林第三版)}

An example:^{(Sei Shōnagon 清少納言, 996–1025, cited in Suzuki, 2006:69)}

"sara ni tsukazu. tachi ne" to te, juzu torikaeshite
「さらにつかず。立ちね」とて、数珠取り返して
"[You're] completely useless. Leave." Saying that, retrieved the rosary.
- Text source: 枕草子『すさまじきもの』（験者の、物の怪調ずとて〜）の現代語訳 - manapedia.jp, accessed 2019-09-11.

The phrase to iuu と言う is another possible origin.^{(Hirose and Nawata, 2016:9)}

The phrase to ii-te と言いて is another possible origin. This combines a conjugation of iu 言う, plus the conjunctive te て.^{(Hirose and Nawata, 2016:9, citing the second edition of Nihon Kokugo Daijiten.)}

The phrase to itte と言って, with iu 言う in its te-form, is another claimed origin.^{(Morishige, 1954 and Tanaka, 1977, as cited in Suzuki, 2006:68)}

The topic-marker and vocative usage are also possibly related to to ieba と言えば, through the contraction tte-ba ってば.^{(Hirose and Nawata, 2016:21)}