Packa upp/opp

Kirk · Postby **Kirk** » 2005-08-28, 1:46

I just looked in a Swedish-English dictionary (online) and it said the Swedish equivalent of English "unpack" is "packa upp/opp," which I thought was interesting, because English "pack up" means the opposite of "unpack!" So, first I just wanted to check and see if the dictionary was right, and also if it is, then can "upp/opp" also be used with other verbs where English would have "un-" before it? Tack

Dingbats · Postby **Dingbats** » 2005-08-28, 10:18

Your dictionary is completely right, "packa upp" ("opp" is dialectal or old-fashioned) means "unpack". But no, you can't use "upp" wherever you would use "un-" in English, only with this verb and maybe some others. Generally "un-" is "o-" in Swedish.

Hunef · Postby **Hunef** » 2005-08-28, 17:12

I completely agree with Dingbats here. I can't really see any systematic connection between Swedish upp (or opp in some styles) and English un-. As often is the case, one must analyze each individual example.

Kirk · Postby **Kirk** » 2005-08-28, 18:45

Thanks, you two!

Also, I hadn't realized that "opp" was old fashioned or dialectal.

Hunef · Postby **Hunef** » 2005-08-29, 21:35

Actually, upp is older than opp. By some reason - probably due to the fact that the dialects were stronger back then - the spelling was usually opp some period in earlier Modern Swedish but the spelling has in today's Modern Swedish stabilized to upp.

Kirk · Postby **Kirk** » 2005-08-30, 20:31

Hunef wrote:Actually, upp is older than opp. By some reason - probably due to the fact that the dialects were stronger back then - the spelling was usually opp some period in earlier Modern Swedish but the spelling has in today's Modern Swedish stabilized to upp.

Yeah I knew "upp" was the older form, and I'd read several books that said that "opp" was "colloquial" so I assumed it was in common use in the spoken language but maybe it's just restricted to certain dialects now. Thanks for the information

Hunef · Postby **Hunef** » 2005-09-01, 20:49

In my dialect, Jamtlandic, upp is pronunced with the vowel [U] (SAMPA), i.e. the same vowel as 'oo' in English 'book'. The spelling opp suggests a pronunciation [O] (SAMPA), i.e. like 'ou' in English 'four'. Standard Swedish pronunciation of upp is [8] (SAMPA).

NB: Some other words in Jamtlandic where u is pronunced [U] (SAMPA): ust 'cheese', bukk 'he-goat', tung 'heavy' etc. (Swedish: ost, bock and tung, respectively.)

Kirk · Postby **Kirk** » 2005-09-02, 0:04

Hunef wrote:In my dialect, Jamtlandic, upp is pronunced with the vowel [U] (SAMPA), i.e. the same vowel as 'oo' in English 'book'. The spelling opp suggests a pronunciation [O] (SAMPA), i.e. like 'ou' in English 'four'. Standard Swedish pronunciation of upp is [8] (SAMPA).

NB: Some other words in Jamtlandic where u is pronunced [U] (SAMPA): ust 'cheese', bukk 'he-goat', tung 'heavy' etc. (Swedish: ost, bock and tung, respectively.)

Interesting! Thanks for those descriptions--dialectal differences are fascinating

ZombiekE · Postby **ZombiekE** » 2005-09-02, 17:45

Think you throw your luggage upwards from your case

That'd be uppacking

I've always used this kind of tricks when learning languages.

Hunef · Postby **Hunef** » 2005-09-02, 18:20

The primary verb here is att packa 'to pack, load'. From this verb, or rather from Old Norse equivalent at pakka, one has as time has passed derived secondary forms like packa upp 'unpack', packa av 'unload', packa ur 'unpack; unload', packa ut 'unpack', packa fram 'unpack' etc. (Here, upp 'up', av 'off', ur 'out of', ut 'out', fram 'forward' etc.)

Dingbats · Postby **Dingbats** » 2005-09-04, 14:43

There is actually at least one other verb where "upp" equals the English "un-", namely "låsa upp", "unlock". There might be more of them.

UniLang Language Community • Forum

Packa upp/opp

Who is online