![\"over\"](\"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/over.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I’m not sure if it’s just more evidence of the extent of my Icelandic derangement, or simply a normal thing that people do when they study a language, but sometimes I sit and read…the dictionary. I mean not cover to cover, but randomly, seeing what catches my eye. Recently it was the ‘Y’ section, where I noticed there aren’t very many words \ud83d\ude42 And while looking at the words that start with ‘y’, I realized that about 75% of them were words that begin with the prefix ‘yfir<\/strong>‘. So thus the topic of this post \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n By itself, the preposition yfir<\/strong> means over, above, across<\/em>. It can take both the accusative or the dative case, which is typical in Icelandic, with accusative being used for motion and dative for location.<\/p>\n \u00c9g hengdi myndina yfir bor\u00f0i\u00f0.<\/strong> Myndin er yfir bor\u00f0inu.<\/strong> … \u00c9g hengdi upp myndina fyrir ofan bor\u00f0i\u00f0.<\/strong><\/p>\n Myndin er fyrir ofan bor\u00f0i\u00f0.<\/strong><\/p>\n Also, upp<\/strong> is used after hengja<\/strong>, because otherwise it imparts the meaning of hang<\/em> as in a person…from a noose \ud83d\ude42 As a prefix, yfir-<\/strong> usually imparts a similar meaning, like in<\/p>\n yfir\u00b7ma\u00f0ur<\/strong> – boss, chief Here it creates the idea of a person who is above others, someone of rank or authority. Some words with more of a location sense are<\/p>\n yfir\u00b7bor\u00f0<\/strong> – surface The over-<\/em> meaning, as in too much, more, beyond<\/em>, can be seen in words like<\/p>\n yfir\u00b7borga<\/strong> – overpay yfir<\/strong> is also used in telling time, for minutes past the hour:<\/p>\n Kva\u00f0 er klukkan?<\/strong> – What time is it? Some are tricky and not always what they seem if taken literally:<\/p>\n yfir\u00b7heyra<\/strong> – is not overhear<\/em>, but question, interrogate<\/em><\/p>\n You can usually take a word apart to understand where its meaning came from, like yfir\u00b7tro\u00f0sla<\/strong> – violation, infraction<\/em>. The stem word likely comes from tro\u00f0a<\/strong> – to trample, step on<\/em>. So with yfir-<\/strong> it becomes like overstep<\/em>, tro\u00f0sla<\/strong> being the noun form.<\/p>\n There are a lot more of course \ud83d\ude42 Many seem a bit abstract, but make more sense when you pick them apart (try tracking down yfir\u00b7kl\u00f3r<\/strong>). Do a wildcard search<\/a> at the wisc.edu dictionary site and check out all the ones they have.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m not sure if it’s just more evidence of the extent of my Icelandic derangement, or simply a normal thing…<\/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],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546"}],"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=3546"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3733,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3546\/revisions\/3733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nI hung the picture over the table. (direction\/motion – accusative)<\/p>\n
\nThe picture is over the table. (location – dative)<\/p>\n
\n[UPDATE] I received an email from a native speaker (thanks \u00de\u00f3rey!) who said that the examples above for “hanging a picture” are better expressed as<\/p>\n
\n…<\/p>\n
\nyfir\u00b7l\u00e6knir<\/strong> – chief doctor
\nyfir\u00b7stj\u00f3rn<\/strong> – management, administration<\/p>\n
\nyfir\u00b7skrift<\/strong> – title, heading<\/p>\n
\nyfir\u00b7bj\u00f3\u00f0a<\/strong> – outbid
\nyfir\u00b7kominn<\/strong> – overcome
\nyfir\u00b7hitna<\/strong> – overheat<\/p>\n
\nKorter yfir sj\u00f6.<\/strong> – Quarter past 7.<\/p>\n