# Icelandic: því enn hefur engin aðstoð borist



## Alxmrphi

Hæ öll,
Mig langar til að fá aðstoð að skilja stutt texta, sem ég skrifaði úr nokkrum kvikmyndatexta á frettir, enn fjallar um Haítí og samhengið er staðan þar núna: 

Ungur maður segir:

*Við erum hér að leita að mat því enn hefur engin aðstoð borist þar sem mikill fjöldi fólks biður eftir vatni og mat og einhvers konar svefntjaldi.*

I got a little bit confused with the 'hefur' thing but after realising it was just following its rule where the verb has to be in that place it helped, also noting that the adjective+noun was in the nominative case so I was checking that the underlined part mean *'because still no help/aid has...*' ?
I couldn't find *borist* in the dictionary as a past participle but I assume in this context it has to mean 'arrived at' or 'reached', can anyone tell me what verb this is from?

The other tiny thing is the word svefntjaldi, I instantly recognised the compound as _'svefn (sleep)' + 'tjald (tent)_', but '_sleeptent_' doesn't make sense to me really, I thought tjald would have been sufficient. Does svefntjaldi just mean 'a tent' or does it take on a slightly different meaning, I was thinking possibly 'somewhere to sleep'.

So my attempted translation is here if anyone can help with any tips / mistakes I've not realised, please let me know:

*We are here looking for food because still no aid has reached where a large crowd of people is waiting for water and food, and somewhere to sleep / a tent(?)*

Takk fyrirfram.
Alex


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## Silver_Biscuit

I don't know about *svefntjald*. I think you're probably right - it's just an odd way to say a tent that will be used to sleep in. Or maybe it's not odd at all, just seems that way to us non-natives?

*Borist* is, I believe, from *að bera*, and this is a passive construction using the middle voice. So the literal translation would be 'still no aid has been brought'.


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## kepulauan

They are probably distinguishing 'sleeping-tents' from the giant hospital tents that are also in urgent need of 'getting brought'.


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## Alxmrphi

> *Borist* is, I believe, from *að bera*, and this is a passive construction using the middle voice. So the literal translation would be 'still no aid has been brought'.





pollodia said:


> They are probably distinguishing 'sleeping-tents' from the giant hospital tents that are also in urgent need of 'getting brought' .


 
Ah I see, that makes perfect sense!
I wasn't sure about *að bera*, I see an entry for a translation is 'carry' but I didn't think of a synonym like 'bring' used in this sense, my mind tried to fill in the gap then it got quite secure that this was correct! It was hard to search for an alternative answer at that point!

Thanks!


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## Silver_Biscuit

Alxmrphi said:


> I wasn't sure about *að bera*, I see an entry for a translation is 'carry' but I didn't think of a synonym like 'bring' used in this sense, my mind tried to fill in the gap then it got quite secure that this was correct! It was hard to search for an alternative answer at that point!
> 
> Thanks!


 
With *að bera*, the actual English verb it corresponds to is *to bear* rather than *to carry* _or_ *to bring*, or any combination of English verbs. I always find it more helpful to think about it that way, even though *to bear* is quite rarely used in English these days. It can mean to carry, to hold up, to bring, to give birth (and you can see the Icelandic pp *borinn* corresponds directly to the English *born*), and as such fits really quite well with the Icelandic *að bera*. Then you have verbs like *afbera* and *umbera* which are close in meaning to *bear* as in 'I can't bear it anymore'. I can see why the dictionaries don't translate it that way because it doesn't really fit with modern English usage, but it's much easier to understand a lot of Icelandic words when you realise how closely they fit English archaisms. Of course, it's not an _exact_ fit because of different idioms and so forth, but it's loads closer than *to carry*.


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## kepulauan

Ah yes that's the word I was looking for. You are absulutely right Ms. Biscuit, _bera_ and _bear _are cognates and they can mean all these things at the same time or you can handpick a meaning for it. You can also consider _barnsburður, bear with me_. One thing to note though is the process of giving birth: _fæða _is used for humans while _bera _is used for some animals.


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## Alxmrphi

> _fæða _is used for humans while _bera _is used for some animals.


 
Fæða is also for saying where you were born etc right? I mean, to say "I was born.." and other similar things, right? (*Ég er fæddur í Englandi, í lítilum bæ í sveitinni þar sem talaði enginn íslensku (því miður )*...) etc? Didn't know about the human / animal distinction, but I'm aware of it in other languages, that's a good tip


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## Silver_Biscuit

I know you can say 'ég fæddist' for 'I was born'. Pollodia, is this synonymous with 'ég var fæddur'?
That's a good point about not saying that humans 'bera' children. Could be awkward if you got that wrong.


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## Alxmrphi

I read somewhere it's more normal to use the present tense with *að fæða* (i.e. ég er fæddur), hmm pollodia can you confirm?


> That's a good point about not saying that humans 'bera' children. Could be awkward if you got that wrong.


Yes! I once read a mistake whereby someone got the 2 verbs mixed up in Italian and used 'raised' like a farmer raising animals (instead of the verb for _raising children_), and he got some weird / shocked looks!


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## kepulauan

Haha reminds me of a sketch where a boy got lost from his mother and was raised by a herd of sheep.

But sure yes _fæða_ is normal to say but the other one can be used in some situations like _barnsburður_, a posh way of saying _fæðing_. Other uses of _bera_ in this context can sometimes be found in some "posh" literature e.g. "_...barst í heiminn_.


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## Silver_Biscuit

Although this is wildly off the original question, pollodia, can you tell us which is more natural/common to say, or if any of these are wrong?

1. Ég fæddist í Reykjavík.
2. Ég er fæddur í Reykjavík.
3. Ég var fæddur í Reykjavík.


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## Alxmrphi

You read my mind SB...


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## kepulauan

Silver_Biscuit said:


> Although this is wildly off the original question, pollodia, can you tell us which is more natural/common to say, or if any of these are wrong?
> 
> 1. Ég fæddist í Reykjavík.
> 2. Ég er fæddur í Reykjavík.
> 3. Ég var fæddur í Reykjavík.



1 and 2 are perfect.
3 is not very clear in my head, it can't really work with an event that obviously happened, unlike _ég var fermdur, ég var nefndur_, _ég var alinn upp_ (it is also starting to indicate unrelated issues). It would need some special situation, like when you are explaining why something happened in the past and your place of birth was one of few couses that shaped a sequence of some sort. The other two could replace it so.. no need to undersand the previous sentence.


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## Pont neuf

Just to make things a bit more complicated, a_ð leysa höfn_ is another phrase meaning the same as _to give birth_. It is not much used now, but still a part of the language. Just for your information, in case.


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## Alxmrphi

Pont neuf said:


> Just to make things a bit more complicated, a_ð leysa höfn_ is another phrase meaning the same as _to give birth_. It is not much used now, but still a part of the language. Just for your information, in case.


 
Thanks for the addition!


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