I often see って being used to mark a topic, such as in the sentence 新宿ってどこ？ I'm
aware that this is more colloquial compared to the topic marker は. Other than
the formality aspect, are って and は completely interchangeable in meaning when
used like this?
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2014-03-23T22:08:05.583
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2023-08-20T04:05:57.017
2014-03-27T11:57:20.407
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particles colloquial-language particle-って particle-は
Difference between って and は as topic marker
_A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar_ has the following to say about this:

> When って is attached to a noun, it is close in meaning to the topic marker
> は。When って is attached to a sentence as in
>

>> 外国で暮らすって難しいね。

>
> it is closer in meaning to 「..というのは、..」. However, it is more colloquial and
> emotive than は and というのは。In fact, if the predicate does not express the
> speaker's emotive judgement / evaluation, って cannot be used. For instance,
> the following is ungrammatical:
>

>> 山口さんって先生です。

>
> The following use is correct
>

>> 山口さんって変な人ですね。

There are also a few more examples in that section which use the って
construction with nouns:

> アメリカ人ってフットボールが好きですね。  
>  漢字っておもしろいですよ。  
>  日本人ってよく写真を撮りますね。
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2014-03-23T22:41:52.680
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は is fairly matter of fact. "Where is Shinjuku?"

って is a little more nuanced. Its like "Oh, now that you mention
Shinjuku...where is it?" or "Speaking of Shinjuku, where is that?"

For all intents and purposes I gather the actual end-point meaning is the same
but って is linking it more with something that has been previously said whilst
は could just be bringing it up out of the blue. I feel that because it has
this prior link it comes across as less forceful, just like such a situation
in English.
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2014-03-24T01:11:53.117
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