eyja

See also: Eyja

Icelandic

Etymology

From older ey (dative eyju), from Old Norse ey, from Proto-Germanic *awjō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈeiːja/

  Rhymes: -eiːja

  Homophones: eygja, Eyja

Noun

eyja f (genitive singular eyju, nominative plural eyjur)

1. island

   Synonyms: ey, eyland

Usage notes

• The inflections of the strong and weak nouns ey and eyja tend to be mixed together:
  • The weak inflection is more common in the nominative, accusative and dative singular (nom. eyja(n), acc. eyju(na), dat. eyju(nni)), but the strong inflections are also used (nom. ey(in), acc. ey(na), dat. ey(nni) or eyju(nni)). The strong ey(in), however, is rare compared to weak eyja(n).
  • The strong genitive (eyjar(innar)) is dominant compared to the weak (eyju(nnar)).
  • The strong inflection is more common in the nominative/accusative plural (eyjar(nar)) but the dative and genitive plurals are indistinguishable for both strong and weak forms (dat. eyjum/eyjunum, gen. eyja(nna)).
• The weak dative singular (eyju(nni)) is indistinguishable from the alternative archaic strong dative singular (eyju(nni)).
• All plural place names for islands use the strong eyjar rather than the weak eyjur: Færeyjar, Vestmannaeyjar. Singular place names, however, may be based off of ey or eyja.

Declension

Declension of eyja (feminine)

	singular		plural
	indefinite	definite	indefinite	definite
nominative	eyja	eyjan	eyjur	eyjurnar
accusative	eyju	eyjuna	eyjur	eyjurnar
dative	eyju	eyjunni	eyjum	eyjunum
genitive	eyju	eyjunnar	eyja	eyjanna

References

• Ásgeir Blöndal Magnússon (1989) Íslensk orðsifjabók, Reykjavík: Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies, →ISBN (Available at Málið.is under the “Eldri orðabækur” tab.)
• Kristín Bjarnadóttir, editor (2002–2025), “eyja”, in Beygingarlýsing íslensks nútímamáls [The Database of Modern Icelandic Inflection] (in Icelandic), Reykjavík: The Árni Magnússon Institute for Icelandic Studies
• Mörður Árnason (2019) Íslensk orðabók, 5th edition, Reykjavík: Forlagið
• “eyja” in the Dictionary of Modern Icelandic (in Icelandic) and ISLEX (in the Nordic languages)

Old Norse

Noun

eyja

1. genitive plural indefinite of ey f