What does とか mean in this sentence?

Question

It's from one of the Gaki no Tsukai Batsu Game shows:

被ったらあかんとか知らなかった

I think I have a general idea of what it does. I think it's similar to "のか" in:

彼らは何を言ってるのかわかりません

These particles seem to be separating the sentences into 2 distinct parts, or defining one part so you can then make a comment on it.

In any case, I'm not sure what this aspect of grammar is called, and don't know the difference between の, か, のか, こと, and とか when they are used in this way. Any help would be much appreciated, thanks.

Answer 1

In this case, とか is interchangeable with なんて, a particle used to emphasize the negative feeling against the marked word. This とか implies the speaker doesn't like the rule (="被ったらあかん") or thinks the rule is not important. If the speaker thought the rule is important, he would usually say something like 被ったらあかんとは知らんかった.

This type of とか doesn't always have to be translated, but you may use "such a ～," "things like ～," or even "damned," depending on the context.

Another function of とか is to avoid assertive statements by implying other possible options ("maybe ～", "～ or something like that"). It's not the case with this sentence.