Swedish: What does "utav" mean? (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

Swedish: What does "utav" mean?
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Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages

Thomas
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Message 1 of 4

09 March 2008 at 4:54am | IP Logged

Goddag.

I've been learning some Swedish children songs, doing my best to decipher them as I go. One song that I learned recently is called "Ett gammalt fult och elakt troll". I had trouble with one word "utav". Here is the verse in question:

"Och hos det gamla trollet var en trollmadam,
en näsa hade hon som hela Amsterdam.
Hon lagade till maten, och lade upp på faten
en kaka utav sand så stor som Svealand."

Here is my newbie translation:

"And in the house of the old troll was a troll woman,
She had a nose as big as Amsterdam
She made some food and put it on the dish(?)
A cake ?????? as big as Svealand."

"utav" isn't in the dictionary I use. I thought it might be some combination of "ut" (out) and "av" (of). A huge cake made out of sand? But I wasn't sure. The song goes back to the beginning of last century, so I thought it was possible that it could just be an old word.

Can any kind Swede help me out?

Edited by Thomas on 09 March 2008 at 4:55am
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Gon-no-suke
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Message 2 of 4

09 March 2008 at 9:45am | IP Logged

Your translation is right on the spot. "Utav" describes the material the cake is made of in this case. It is probably a spoken equivalent to "av". It is not archaic as I could imagine using this word myself. It could be slightly dialectal though - I am from the north of Sweden. Any other Swedes that can help me out on this one?
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jeff_lindqvist
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Message 3 of 4

09 March 2008 at 11:18am | IP Logged

Straight from Frågelådan:

Quote:

fråga
När ska man använda av och när utav?

svar

Det vanligaste är att man alltid använder av, åtminstone i skriftspråk. Utav antyder en talspråkligare stil.

Utav kan alltid bytas ut mot av, men inte tvärtom. Av kan nämligan användas både som adverb och preposition, medan utav bara fungerar som preposition. Därför går båda bra som prepositioner, som i "jag visste vad jag gjorde trots påverkan utav/av såna här sovtabletter ". Men när av är adverb, som i "Ta av till höger" går utav inte att sätta in i stället.

Historiskt har utav bildats som en förlängning av av. Andra prepositioner som förlängts med ut- är uti, utur och utifrån.

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Thomas
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Joined 6040 days ago
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Studies: Japanese, Swedish

Message 4 of 4

10 March 2008 at 5:23am | IP Logged

Thanks a lot for the quick reply guys! I appreciate it.

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