Please can someone help me with a bit of complicated linguistic conceptualisation? This is about 2 adjectives with opposite meanings which have double forms, in this case bad (in Swedish) and good (in Icelandic).
1. In Swedish:
dålig, värre, värst (the usual bad/worse/worst)
dålig, sämre, sämst (the comparative forms refer to less of a good quality)
2. In Icelandic:
góður, betri, bestur (the usual good/better/best)
góður, skárri, skástur
So, it would seem to me that Swedish HAN ÄR SÄMRE is the exact opposite of Icelandic HANN ER SKÁRRI.
This strikes me as deeply interesting. I know of nothing similar outside the Scandinavian languages. Any comments? What happens in Danish/Norwegian/Faroese?
Is there a specific Icelandic equivalent of dålig, sämre, sämst? And is there a specific Swedish equivalent of góður, skárri, skástur?
Cheers,
Simon
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