でも / は / 守る / モテる / みてえな

Hello,


1. せっせと週刊誌でも読んで

Translation given: "reading weekly magazines more diligently"

What does でも mean here? Can it somehow be supplying the sense of "more"?


2. 栗は少なくとも１５分は茹でなくてはいけない。

Translation given: "Chestnuts have to be boiled for at least fifteen minutes."

What is the function of は in １５分は? Emphasis? Contrast?


3. 思想の自由は守らなければならない。

Translation given: "Freedom of thought must be observed."

I translated as "Freedom of thought must be protected." Is my version OK?


4. 知性的女性モテる時代。

Translation given: "Era of the Intelligent Model".

Is モテる a mistake for モデル? Or a variant spelling perhaps? The mixture of scripts looks odd to me though.


5. 「お前みてえなおかちめんこは初めて見た」と言ったら 、「セクハラだ」と言われた。

Translation given: "When I told her I'd never seen such a homely girl, she accused me of sexual harassment."

What is みてえな?

3. Yes.

4. モテる means 'being popular'.
It is written 持てる but somehow this 'spelling' is not so commonly used. Usually もてる or to emphasis モテる.

5. みてえ = みたい
It's one of べらんめえ調.
繧｢繝ｳ繝代し繝ｳ繝あ - Wikipedia
e.g. お前（まえ）みたいな奴（やつ）は→おめえみてえなやつぁ

1)
"or something"
"More" is from せっせと.

2)
は without 少なくとも can mean "at least". It's similar to で that acts as "maximum".

料理を作るのに（少なくとも）15分はかかる。
料理は（長くても）15分でできる。

Incidentally, the meaning changes to the opposite in negative sentences.

（長くても）15分はかからない.(= less than 15 minutes)

4)
In addtion to @undrentide -san, モテる is used only this particular meaning.

Thank you both.

4. I'm a bit confused. Does 知性的女性モテる時代 then actually mean "Era in which intelligent women are popular?" Is the translation that I quoted, "Era of the Intelligent Model", a mistake where someone misread モテる as モデル? (This translation is from a textbook.)

5. That Wikipedia link takes me to the article titled アンパサンド, so I'm thinking something has gone wrong... However, I gather that べらんめえ調 is a kind of Tokyo dialect, right?

4. Particle is omitted here, it often happens in the title of articles (papers, magazines, for instance).
知性的な女性がモテる時代 if written properly.

5. Oops, sorry, I should have checked it myself if it would work.
It must be due to the encoding problem of this forum. (Japanese fonts in url are always garbled.)
Please search for 江戸言葉 at Japanese wiki. (Wikipedia)

> However, I gather that べらんめえ調 is a kind of Tokyo dialect, right?
Yes, it is.

eeky said:

4. I'm a bit confused. Does 知性的女性モテる時代 then actually mean "Era in which intelligent women are popular?" Is the translation that I quoted, "Era of the Intelligent Model", a mistake where someone misread モテる as モデル?

Click to expand...

Yes. The translator would misread モテる as モデル, as you wrote. Or, モテる could be a typo of モデル, if the translation is correct.

Thanks undrentide, in #4 I understand the omission of the particles. However, what I do not understand is why the word "model" (presumably meaning fashion model) appears in the textbook translation that I quoted in my original post. Does the Japanese sentence actually have anything to do with models, or has someone misread ﾆ停?堡弾窶堙ｩ as ﾆ停?堡断ﾆ停?ｹ? Do you see what I mean?

(edited) Please ignore as Toritoribe just replied as I was typing this!