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When I first heard 「っていねえし」 or similar phrases used as an expression of surprise when the speaker finds their intended audience is not there any more or doesn't exist to begin with, I thought it was 「でいねえし」, で (それで/そこで) meaning "so" or "well". But it seems to be って.

「すみませーん。クラスメート熱あるみたいで…っていねえし」
保健室についたが人気が感じられない。(source)

「ま、いいかぁ。じゃ、とどめを‥‥っていねえし」(source)

If it's quotative and the contraction of と, can I understand it as coming from one of these:

○○と言ったところで人は(もう)いないことに気付いた

○○と言ったところ、人は(もう)いないことに気付いた

○○と言いたいが、気が付くと、人は(もう)いないし

○○と言っているけど、気が付くと、人は(もう)いないし

Yusuke Matsubara
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Eddie Kal
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1 Answers1

2

This type of って is a distinct phrase used when a conversation or a plan was unexpectedly interrupted by something urgent. It's like "wait", "um" or "oh".

  • それで昨日ね……って、聞いてる？
    And yesterday... Wait, are you listening?
  • これを買って……って、3万円!? 高っ!
    I'll buy this and...what, 30,000 yen!? So expensive!

None of the dictionaries I checked explains this usage, but I also suppose this derived from the quotative-って used at the beginning of a sentence. Perhaps something like と言いつつ ("while saying this; meanwhile") or と言うか was shortened to って.

naruto
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