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なにがあろうと、たとえ警察につかまったって、このお菓子は手ばなすもんか。

I don't understand what って represents in this sentence. Is it ても? The conditional と? I don't think either is a valid usage of って, so could this be the quotative と? But then the rest of the sentence doesn't fit, at least in my opinion.

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Let's start with first and third part of sentence:

なにがあろうと、

Whatever happens,

このお菓子は手ばなすもんか。

I will definitely not let go of this sweet.

Next second part of sentence:

たとえ警察につかまったって、

たとえ (possible spellings with kanji: 仮令, 縦え, 縦令), often paired with ～ても / ～でも, とも, （～た / ～だ）って, means "even if, no matter (what), if, though, although, supposing, supposing that".

This って attached to past tense ～た / ～だ is synonym of ～ても / ～でも, and is って 4.2. in this dictionary:

  1. (接続助詞、終助詞)

    2.（た、だなどに付いて）譲歩を表す。ても、でも。たところで、だとしても。

So 「たとえ警察につかまったって、」 can be translated as "even if I get caught by police".

Whole sentence:

なにがあろうと、たとえ警察につかまったって、このお菓子は手ばなすもんか。

Whatever happens, even if I get caught by police, I will definitely not let go of this sweet.

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  • Is って really used for quotation here? Usually たって is described as "even if"
    – Axe
    Commented Sep 24 at 19:00
  • @Axe I think that both of these って are different functions of the same particle. Maybe "even if" meaning is used in this case, and maybe both interpretations are theoretically possible in some cases. There would be almost no difference in meaning with "even if I get caught by police" translation.
    – Arfrever
    Commented Sep 24 at 19:15
  • For native speakers, would sentence remain grammatically valid (but with possibly different meaning/nuance) with verb in non-past form: 「なにがあろうと、たとえ警察につかまるって、このお菓子は手ばなすもんか。」?
    – Arfrever
    Commented Sep 24 at 19:18
  • It's common misunderstanding, but the adverb たとえ is not derived from verb 例える but it's a variation of adverb たとい (or たとひ in classical spelling), which leads concessive expression. You can say たとえ警察につかまっても, but たとえ警察につかまるって does not make sense.
    – rk03
    Commented Sep 26 at 0:33

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