よぉ / なれた / をと / 半年 / は

Hiya,


1. 「お前に付き合うほど暇じゃない」「なんかしょぼんだ よぉ」

Translation given: "I haven't got the time to keep up with you." "That's rather depressing."

What is よぉ? Is it like よ? What the significance of the character ぉ?


2. アンテナ社員になれたかな。

Translation given: "Have they truly become antenna employees?"

Is なれた from なれる, potential form of 成る (as opposed to 慣れる)?


3. 「仕事を離れて社外の人とつき合う費用を、会社が負担 しましょう」－社外に顔が広く、情報網の多い"アンテ ナ社員"をと、住友信託銀行（本店・大阪市、桜井修社 長）が「社外交流費制度」をスタートさせて半年。

Translation given: "In the hopes of nurturing broad-minded 'antenna employees' with an expansive network of contacts outside the company, Sumitomo Loan and Trust Company (Headquarters: Osaka; President: Osamu Saikurai) has launched a new system for accepting the expenses of employees who meet with people unrelated to their work."

a) How does "をと" work? Is there some omitted/implied verb?

b) What is 半年 at the end? I know 半年 means "half year", but how does it relate semantically and grammatically to the rest of the sentence？What part of speech is it functioning as?


4. 「意識改革の面でまずまずは成功だった」と銀行側はい うが、さて、その収支決算は－。

Translation given: "From the angle of changing the outlook of employees, claims Sumitomo Loan and Trust, the system can be regarded as a success. How do its assets and liabilties balance in the final accounting?"

a) What is the role of は in まずまずは成功だった? I'm sure I've seen similar grammar before, but now I can't seem to recall how it works.

b) The dash at the end of the sentence is a long dash about two characters in length. Is は－ saying "...as for the balance of accounts....", trailing off to let the reader ponder the question or come to his own conclusion?

1)
I can't see any difference in meaning between よ and よぉ in this case, although I believe なんかしょぼんだよぉ is not so common.

2)
Yes.

3) a)
Right. As in the translation "nurturing", the translater interpreted it as "アンテナ社員"を育てようと.

b)
半年が経った.
This kind of omitting is often used in news article.

4) a)
は emphasizes the meaning of the adverb. In this case, まずまずは has a nuance of "we at least can say that it's an acceptable result" or like that.

b)
I think there are two possible cases, - 1) the actual balance of accounts is said in the following sentences, or 2) the final balance of accounts will appear later(= they have not gotten the result yet).

Thanks Toritoribe.

1. Does よぉ have a well-defined pronunciation? How does it compare to よ or よお?

4b. This is the last sentence of that section of the article, so I guess your explanation #2 applies.

Sorry, I misread なんかしょぼんだよぉ as なんかしょぼいんだよぉ. よぉ sounds more soft, gentle, or emotional than よ. But anyway, しょぼんだよ is an oldish expression no one uses anymore.

よぉ and よお/よー are almost the same, but different from the short vowel よ, as I wrote before somewhere.