{"id":1560,"date":"2013-04-04T13:26:27","date_gmt":"2013-04-04T13:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/islenzka.net\/?p=1560"},"modified":"2013-04-04T13:26:27","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T13:26:27","slug":"sunny-reykjavik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/sunny-reykjavik\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunny Reykjavik"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sunny\"<\/p>\n

It sounds like last month was the sunniest March in over a decade, according to this article on V\u00edsir<\/a>. There are several sun and weather related terms in the article, and it also provides a good opportunity to mention one of the more interesting (or challenging) aspects of Icelandic – compound words. Now if your native language is English, compound words are nothing new. But they are probably more common in Icelandic and you might not recognize them right away if you are just starting out. If you speak German you probably have no problems whatsoever \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

The title of the article contains two compound words:<\/p>\n

“S\u00f3lr\u00edkasti marsm\u00e1nu\u00f0ur \u00ed yfir \u00e1ratug”<\/strong> – Sunniest March In Over A Decade<\/em><\/p>\n

The word for sunny<\/em> combines the word for sun (s\u00f3l<\/strong>) with the adjective for rich<\/em> (r\u00edkur<\/strong>). Then “the month of march” is expressed as one word – mars\u00b7m\u00e1nu\u00f0ur<\/strong>. You could replace March with any other month and use it similarly.<\/p>\n

“Marsm\u00e1nu\u00f0ur hefur ekki veri\u00f0 eins s\u00f3lr\u00edkur \u00ed Reykjav\u00edk s\u00ed\u00f0an 1999 e\u00f0a \u00ed fj\u00f3rt\u00e1n \u00e1r. S\u00f3larstundir voru t\u00e6plega 163 og er \u00fea\u00f0 51 stund yfir me\u00f0allag.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“March hasn’t been so sunny in Reykjavik since 1999, or in 14 years. There were almost 163 hours of sunshine, or 51 above the average.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The word used for measuring<\/em> is a\u00f0 m\u00e6la<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
a\u00f0 m\u00e6la – to measure<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\npresent<\/th>\npast<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e9g<\/th>\nm\u00e6li<\/td>\nm\u00e6ldi<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fe\u00fa<\/th>\nm\u00e6lir<\/td>\nm\u00e6ldir<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fea\u00f0<\/th>\nm\u00e6li<\/td>\nm\u00e6ldi<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vi\u00f0<\/th>\nm\u00e6lum<\/td>\nm\u00e6ldum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fei\u00f0<\/th>\nm\u00e6li\u00f0<\/td>\nm\u00e6ldu\u00f0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00feau<\/th>\nm\u00e6la<\/td>\nm\u00e6ldu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

“\u00darkoma \u00ed Reykjav\u00edk m\u00e6ldist r\u00famur 41 millimetri og er \u00fea\u00f0 um helmingur me\u00f0al\u00farkomu \u00ed mars. S\u00ed\u00f0ast var mars \u00e1m\u00f3ta \u00feurr 2005.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Precipitation in Reykjavik was measured at around 41 millimeters and is about half of the average for March. The last time March was this dry was 2005.” <\/em><\/p>\n

Be careful not to confuse a\u00f0 m\u00e6la<\/strong> with the verb that looks the same but means to talk or speak<\/em> – they conjugate the same way in the present tense, but the past tense has -t-<\/strong> endings instead of -d-<\/strong>. It’s usually pretty clear from the context which meaning is intended.<\/p>\n

Another word used in the article is s\u00f3lskinsstund<\/strong>, which I guess is a triple compound \ud83d\ude42 It contains the words for sun (s\u00f3l<\/strong>), shine (skin<\/strong>) and time (stund<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

The verb for shine<\/em> has an interesting conjugation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
a\u00f0 sk\u00edna – to shine<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\npresent<\/th>\npast<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e9g<\/th>\nsk\u00edn<\/td>\nskein<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fe\u00fa<\/th>\nsk\u00edn<\/td>\nskeinst<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fea\u00f0<\/th>\nsk\u00edn<\/td>\nskein<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vi\u00f0<\/th>\nsk\u00ednum<\/td>\nskinum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fei\u00f0<\/th>\nsk\u00edni\u00f0<\/td>\nskinu\u00f0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00feau<\/th>\nsk\u00edna<\/td>\nskinu<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

S\u00f3lin sk\u00edn oftast \u00e1 sumrin.<\/strong> – The sun shines the most in summer.<\/p>\n

So if you come across a word that isn’t in the dictionary, look closely to see if it might be a compound word. Then break it apart and look up each word separately, and see if you can figure out the meaning of the compound.<\/p>\n

\r\n\u00e1ra\u00b7tug\/ur m (-ar,-ir)\t\tdecade\r\n\u00far\u00b7kom\/a f (-u,-ur)\t\tprecipitation\r\nt\u00e6p\u00b7lega adv\t\t\thardly, barely\r\nr\u00fam\u00b7lega adv\t\t\tmore than, just over\r\nme\u00f0al\u00b7lag n (-s)\t\taverage, mean\r\nhelming\/ur m (-s,-ar)\t\thalf\r\n\u00e1\u00b7m\u00f3ta adv\t\t\tabout as\r\n\u00feurr adj (f \u00feurr)\t\tdry\r\n<\/pre>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It sounds like last month was the sunniest March in over a decade, according to this article on V\u00edsir. There…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3,12],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1560"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1616,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1560\/revisions\/1616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}