Constructions like　[ "direct speech" と noun ]


The next sentence sounds enough strange for me, as I have got used to
constructions like "「...」と（Aさんが）言った。" or something similar. But, here it looks
like at least the word "言う" was omitted.

Why do we have just " **と** 運転手" after the direct speech?

> 「ああ、あの道ですね。ヒルキンに、よく通りましたよ」 **と** 運転手。




Yes, it's a pure omission. Omitting は言った at the end of a sentence is fairly
common in novels.

It makes the sentence sound light to make the whole paragraph flow smoothly.




A common feature in Japanese is to shorten things down to its very essence, in
this case が言いました/が言った are simply omitted because to a native speaker it is
obvious what the verb should be.

