The city of Berne [?b??n] (Bernese German Bärn [?pæ?rn], German Bern [?b??rn], French Berne [?b??n], Italian Berna [?b?rna], Romansh Berna [?b?rn?]), is the "Bundesstadt" (administrative capital) of Switzerland, and is the fourth most populous Swiss city (after Zürich, Geneva and Basel).
Language: German, or more specifically, Bernese German, which is a high-Alemannic dialect. The Canton of Bern has a French-speaking part. Very few people still speak the Matteänglisch, a secret language used in the former workers' quarter Matte, but several words have found their way in the Bernese German.
Bern also functions as the capital of the Canton of Bern, the second most populous of Switzerland's cantons.
Illustrious Bernese include the scientist Albrecht von Haller, the poet Albert Bitzius and the painters Ferdinand Hodler and Paul Klee. The German-born physicist Albert Einstein worked out his theory of relativity while employed as a clerk at the Bern patent office. A culturally important person was Mani Matter, a songwriter performing in Bernese German. |
