bjǫrn
Old Norse
Etymology
From *bernuz,[1][2][3] northern form of Proto-Germanic *berô (“bear”). Possibly cognate to Old English beorn (“warrior”).
Noun
bjǫrn m (genitive bjarnar, dative birni, plural birnir)
- bear (animal)
Declension
| masculine | singular | plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite | definite | indefinite | definite | |
| nominative | bjǫrn | bjǫrninn | birnir | birnirnir |
| accusative | bjǫrn | bjǫrninn | bjǫrnu | bjǫrnuna |
| dative | birni | birninum | bjǫrnum | bjǫrnunum |
| genitive | bjarnar | bjarnarins | bjarna | bjarnanna |
Descendants
- Icelandic: björn m
- Faroese: bjørn f
- Norwegian Bokmål: bjørn m
- Norwegian Nynorsk: bjørn, bjønn m
- Jamtish: bjenn
- Elfdalian: byönn
- Old Swedish: biørn, biorn
- Swedish: björn c
- Old Danish: biørn, biorn
- Danish: bjørn c
- Old Gutnish: biorn
- Gutnish: bjånn
- → Proto-Samic: *piernë
- Northern Sami: bierdna
- Southern Sami: bïerne
References
- ^ Kroonen, Guus Jann (2009) Consonant and vowel gradation in the Proto-Germanic n-stems (PhD thesis)[1], Leiden: Leiden University, page 26: “bjǫrn m. ‘bear’ < *bernu-”
- ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013) “*beran- 2”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)[2], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 59-60: “In Nordic, it was replaced by the u-stem *bernu-, cf. ON bjǫrn, Far. bjørn (f.), Elfd. byönn, which split off from the acc.pl. case *bernuns < *bʰer-n-ń̥s”
- ^ Torp, Alf (1919) “Bjørn”, in Nynorsk Etymologisk Ordbok, Oslo: H. Aschehoug and Co. (W. Nygaard), page 26: “Nordisk stamme *bernu- av ældre *beran”