Meaning of「なんじゃって」


I have difficulty understanding the dialogue below.

[![im](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ttyks.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Ttyks.jpg)

Context: Somebody asked him what does this phrase「好きじゃなくもない」means. He thinks
it means "like."

I have two ways to interpret his response.

I can rewrite the dialogue like this

> 「好き」なん **じゃないかと** 思うかな

It will look like he is explaining this phrase means "like."

Or maybe

> 「好き」なん **だと言う** 。思うかな

I heard that「って」is the short for「と言う」, so it will make more sense? It will
make him to declare that this phrase means "like."

Which of the two interpretations above is correct for this context?




Your first interpretation is correct.

In Tokyo metropolitan dialect, ……では is contracted as ……じゃ and ないか in ……じゃないか
can be omitted (usually denoted with a ellipsis). Therefore,

> 「好きなんじゃ……」って思うかな

in Tokyo metropolitan dialect is equivalent to

> 好きなのではないかと思うかな

in Standard Japanese.

On the other hand, this second interpretation

> 「好き」なんだと言う。思うかな

sounds impossible to me because...

  * Interpreting なんじゃって as だと言う is impossible if the character is speaking a Kanto dialect (incl. Tokyo metropolitan dialect).
  * Even if なんじゃって here means だと言う, the whole sentences does not make sense to me.

Meanwhile, as Dosei mentioned, some western dialects have copula じゃ (like だ in
Standard Japanese) but they drop the quoting particle before 思う, 言う, etc., I
guess.




Your first interpretation is correct.

In Tokyo metropolitan dialect, ……では is contracted as ……じゃ and ないか in ……じゃないか
can be omitted (usually denoted with a ellipsis). Therefore,

> 「好きなんじゃ……」って思うかな

in Tokyo metropolitan dialect is equivalent to

> 好きなのではないかと思うかな

in Standard Japanese.

On the other hand, this second interpretation

> 「好き」なんだと言う。思うかな

sounds impossible to me because...

  * Interpreting なんじゃって as だと言う is impossible if the character is speaking a Kanto dialect (incl. Tokyo metropolitan dialect).
  * Even if なんじゃって here means だと言う, the whole sentences does not make sense to me.

Meanwhile, as Dosei mentioned, some western dialects have copula じゃ (like だ in
Standard Japanese) but they drop the quoting particle before 思う, 言う, etc., I
guess.

