Bern

See also: bern

English

canton of Bern (sense 2)

Alternative forms

• Berne

Etymology

Alemannic German Bärn, of uncertain further origin.

A popular folk etymology says it was named by its founder, Berthold V, Duke of Zähringen, after the first animal he saw in the area, a Bär(in) (“bear”) (compare Berlin, subject to a similar folk etymology).

The name is now thought to be connected to a Celtic word, Proto-Celtic *berna (“cleft”) (from Proto-Indo-European *bʰerH- (“to carve out, cut”)) and *branos (“raven”) (compare the name ΒΡΕΝΟΔΩΡ (BRENODŌR), on the Bern zinc tablet, which has also been connected with the Gaulish name Brennus). More at Bern.

Pronunciation

• (UK) enPR: bû(r)n, IPA^(key): /bɜː(ɹ)n/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)n
• Homophone: burn
• (local) enPR: bârn, IPA^(key): /bɛ(ɹ)n/
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)n
• Homophone: bairn

Proper noun

Bern

1. The capital city of Switzerland; capital city of Bern canton.
2. A canton of Switzerland.

   Synonym: canton of Bern

3. A diminutive of the male given name Bernard.

Derived terms

• Bernese
• New Bern

Translations

city

• Albanian: Bern m
• Amharic: ቤርን (bern)
• Arabic: بِرْن‎ f (bern), بِيرْن‎ f (bern), بِيرْن‎ f (bīrn)
• Armenian: Բեռն (hy) (Beṙn)
• Azerbaijani: Bern (az)
• Basque: Berna (eu)
• Belarusian: Берн m (Bjern), Бэрн m (Bern)
• Bengali: বের্ন (bern)
• Bulgarian: Берн (bg) m (Bern)
• Burmese: ဘန်းမြို့ (bhan:mrui.)
• Catalan: Berna f
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 伯恩 (baak³ jan¹)

  Mandarin: 伯爾尼 (zh), 伯尔尼 (zh) (Bó'ěrní), 伯恩 (zh) (Bó'ēn) (Taiwan)

• Czech: Bern (cs) m
• Danish: Bern n
• Dutch: Bern (nl) n
• Esperanto: Berno
• Estonian: Bern (et)
• Farefare: Bɛrna
• Finnish: Bern (fi)
• French: Berne (fr) f
• Galician: Berna (gl)
• Georgian: ბერნი (berni)
• German: Bern (de) n

  Alemannic German: Bärn

• Greek: Βέρνη (el) f (Vérni)
• Hebrew: בֶּרְן‎ f (bern)
• Hindi: बर्न (hi) m (barn)
• Icelandic: Bern
• Indonesian: Bern
• Irish: Beirn f
• Italian: Berna (it) f
• Japanese: ベルン (Berun)
• Kazakh: Берн (Bern)
• Khmer: ប៊ែន (km) (bɛɛn)
• Korean: 베른 (ko) (Bereun)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: Bern (ku)

• Kyrgyz: Берн (Bern)

• Lao: ແບນ (bǣn)
• Latin: Verona f, Verena f, Bernum n, Berma f, Bernna f, Berona f (Latn), Beruna f (Latn), Arctopolis f (Latn)
• Latvian: Berne f
• Lithuanian: Bernas m
• Macedonian: Берн (mk) m (Bern)
• Malay: Bern
• Maltese: Bern
• Marathi: ^{(please verify)} बर्न (barna)
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: Берн (Bern)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: Bern (no)

• Pashto: برن‎ m (bern)
• Persian: برن‎ (fa) (bern)
• Polish: Berno (pl) n
• Portuguese: Berna (pt) f
• Romansch: Berna f
• Russian: Берн (ru) m (Bern)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: Бе̑рн m

  Roman: Bȇrn (sh) m

• Slovak: Bern m
• Slovene: Bern m
• Spanish: Berna (es) f
• Swedish: Bern (sv) n
• Tagalog: Berna, Bern
• Tajik: Берн (Bern)
• Tamil: பேர்ன் (pērṉ)
• Tatar: Берн (Bern)
• Thai: แบร์น (th) (bɛɛn)
• Tibetan: པེར་ནེ (per ne)
• Turkish: Bern (tr)
• Turkmen: Bern
• Ukrainian: Берн m (Bern)
• Urdu: برن‎ m (barn)
• Uyghur: بېرن‎ (bërn)
• Uzbek: Bern
• Vietnamese: Bơn, Béc-nơ
• Yiddish: בערן‎ n (bern)

canton

• Catalan: Berna
• Finnish: Bern (fi)
• French: Berne (fr) m
• German: Bern (de) n
• Italian: Berna (it) f

• Maltese: Bern
• Polish: Berno (pl) n
• Romansch: Berna f
• Russian: Берн (ru) m (Bern), канто́н Берн m (kantón Bern)

References

• Andres Kristol (ed.), 2005: Lexikon der schweizerischen Gemeindenamen, Huber, Frauenfeld, p. 143. →ISBN

Anagrams

• Bren, NBER, Nebr., bren

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Danish

Proper noun

Bern

1. Bern (the capital city of Switzerland; capital city of Bern canton)
2. Bern (a canton of Switzerland)

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Dutch

Etymology 1

Borrowed from German Bern.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛrn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Bern
• Rhymes: -ɛrn

Proper noun

Bern n

1. Bern (the capital city of Switzerland; capital city of Bern canton)
2. Bern (a canton of Switzerland)

Etymology 2

First attested as birni in 709. Derived from Proto-Germanic *birnu- (“muck, manure, mud that looks like manure”) with collectivising suffix *-ja-.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bɛrn/

• Audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Bern
• Rhymes: -ɛrn

Proper noun

Bern n

1. A hamlet in Zaltbommel, Gelderland, Netherlands.

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Estonian

Proper noun

Bern

1. Bern (the capital city of Switzerland; capital city of Bern canton)
2. Bern (a canton of Switzerland)

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Faroese

Proper noun

Bern ?

1. Bern (the capital of Switzerland)

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German

Kanton Bern (sense 2)

Alternative forms

• BE (canton; ISO 3166-2:CH)

Etymology

Borrowed from Alemannic German Bärn.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [bɛʁn]

• Audio

  (file)

• Audio (Switzerland)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛʁn

Proper noun

Bern n (proper noun, genitive Berns or (optionally with an article) Bern)

1. Bern (the capital city of Switzerland; capital city of Bern canton)
2. Bern (a canton of Switzerland)

   Synonym: Kanton Bern

Derived terms

• Berner
• bernisch

Further reading

• “Bern” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Bern” in Duden online
• “Bern” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon

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Icelandic

Proper noun

Bern ?

1. Bern (the capital of Switzerland)

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Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

From Alemannic German Bärn

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bêːrn/

Proper noun

Bȇrn m (Cyrillic spelling Бе̑рн)

1. Bern (the capital city of Switzerland; capital city of Bern canton)
2. Bern (a canton of Switzerland)

Declension

Declension of Bern

	singular
nominative	Bern
genitive	Berna
dative	Bernu
accusative	Bern
vocative	Berne
locative	Bernu
instrumental	Bernom

References

• “Bern” in Hrvatski jezični portal

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Slovak

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [bern]

Proper noun

Bern m (genitive Bernu, declension pattern of dub)

1. Bern (the capital of Switzerland)

References

• Bern in Slovak dictionaries at slovnik.juls.savba.sk

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Swedish

Etymology

From Alemannic German Bärn

Proper noun

Bern n (genitive Berns)

1. Bern (the capital city of Switzerland; capital city of Bern canton)
2. Bern (a canton of Switzerland)