時よ止まれ！Grammar Question

[Cazza]

Anyone familiar with JoJo’s Bizarre adventure probably recognises this scene, but basically it’s what Dio shouts before stopping (or having his “stand” stop) time.

I’m not entirely sure how the grammar here works though. When I first heard it I thought it was 時を止まれ、which doesn’t seem right since it is the intransitive 止まる rather than the transitive 止める. My next thought was that since it is intransitive, he must be giving an order directly to time to stop. But it this case, I don’t know what よ is doing in the middle of the sentence. Can someone explain this to me?

[Wantitled]

This is just a guess since no one else seems to be here yet, but:

I think it’s simply just を slurred, or possibly some regional dialect. If you compare saying 時を and 時よ, the よ just seems to come out easier.

As for the imperative form of 止まる, I don’t know the exact reason for it being 止まれ instead of 止めろ, but my guess is that no subject is actually addressed as doing the stopping.

[TofuguKanae]

よ can be used for 呼びかけ (calling someone, getting attention of someone). So it means “Time, stop!”
You’re talking to time and you’re asking time to stop. This isn’t very common in daily life, but you’d see it often in literature, especially fiction.
To be more clear, I would add “、” because it’d clarify that よ isn’t a particle that connects 時 and the verb 止まる. Like 時よ、止まれ ！

[Leebo]

You can put よ after something when you are calling out to it (him/her). I’m pretty sure it has a dramatic, archaic feel, like “O time, halt!”

See definition 2

https://jisho.org/word/よ

[Cazza]

Great, I understand this now. Thanks everyone!

[kylesama]

I don’t think it was answered directly, so I’ll also add, its intransative because he is not stopping time, hes commanding time to stop itself.
If he was telling someone else to stop time, then it would be 止めろ.

The thing stopping = 止まれ
Someone stopping thing = 止めれ

I will add, the first one is much, much more common as it is written on every road in the same way as a “STOP” sign.