@eWalthert For Finnish the funny parallels crop up in Estonian which has loads of odd false friends. Apparently goes both ways also. With Icelandic Swedish has some amusing or just strange close-but-not-quite words:
Like a candy-filled gun called "Nammi Byssa"
@eWalthert Theory of funny words in related languages: false friends are of course funny, but a milder version is when the normal word for something in language Y is a rare or provincial word in language X and/or uses a spelling that seems comical.
Like “byssa”; rifle in Icelandic, vs “bössa” in Swedish that is archaic and maybe a bit humorous.
@jhilden There are indeed exactly theses parallels from German to Dutch. Words that sound old and from the past in one language, commonly used in another.
Siechenhaus (German for Infirmary, no longer used)
Ziekenhuis (Dutch for Hospital)
Or in my favorite example, the meaning is reversed.
Seltsam (German for Strange)
Zeldzaam (Dutch for Rare)
vs
Rar (German for Rare)
Raar (Dutch for Strange)
An old friend studies comparative language science. But specialized in eastern languages.
@eWalthert Amusingly, “Rar” is similarly a point of confusion between Swedish and Norwegian:
Swe:sweet, friendly (also valuable; rare, uncommon)
Norwegian Bokmål: strange
Swedish similarly has ”sällsam” which means strange or uncanny.
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