3. Precisely as the words guabba and guttemush are formed, so also are the regular degrees of adjectives.
a. Nuorra=young; nuor-ab=younger; nuora-mush=youngest.
b. Bahha=bad; baha-b=worse; baha-mush=worst.
The following extracts from Stockfleth's Lappish Grammar were probably written without any reference to the Sanskrit or Greek. "Guabba, of which the form and meaning are comparative, appears to have originated in a combination of the pronoun gi, and the comparative affix -abbo."—"Guttemush, of which the form and meaning are superlative, is similarly derived from the pronoun gutte, and the superlative affix -mush."—Grammatik i det Lappiske Sprog, §§ 192, 193.
[§ 309]. Either, neither, other, whether.—It has just been stated that the general fundamental idea common to all these forms is that of choice between one of two objects in the way of an alternative. Thus far the termination -er in either, &c., is the termination -er in the true comparatives, brav-er, wis-er, &c. Either and neither are common pronouns. Other, like one, is a pronoun capable of taking the plural form of a substantive (others), and also that of the genitive case (the other's money, the other's bread). Whether is a pronoun in the almost obsolete form whether (=which) of the two do you prefer, and a conjunction in sentences like whether will you do this or not? The use of the form others is recent. "They are taken out of the way as all other."—Job. "And leave their riches for other."—Psalms.
CHAPTER X.
THE COMPARATIVE DEGREE.