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Er þessi maður skyldur syni þínum?

Er þessi maður skyldur syni þínum?
Is this man related to your son?
From Lesson 167:Irregular kinship nouns (faðir, móðir)·Icelandic

Questions & Answers about Er þessi maður skyldur syni þínum?

Why is the word for son written as syni instead of sonur here?
Sonur is an irregular kinship noun. In this sentence, it needs to be in the dative case. When sonur declines in the dative singular, it changes to syni, undergoing a vowel shift from 'o' to 'y' and dropping the '-ur' ending.
Why is syni in the dative case in the first place? Is there a hidden preposition?
There is no hidden preposition! In Icelandic, certain adjectives force the noun that follows them into a specific case. The adjective skyldur (related) always requires the person you are related to to be in the dative case.
If skyldur makes things dative, why does it end in '-ur', which looks like a nominative ending?
The adjective skyldur describes the subject of the sentence, þessi maður (this man). Because the subject is in the nominative case (and is a masculine singular noun), the adjective must match it. So, skyldur is nominative, but it causes the following noun (syni) to become dative.
Why does þínum come after syni rather than before it?
In Icelandic, possessive words like þinn (your) typically come immediately after the noun they belong to, rather than before it like in English. Also, because it belongs to syni, it must match its masculine dative singular form, which is þínum.

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