The Sernftal or Kleintal is an alpine

Glarus Alps

The Glarus Alps are a mountain range in central Switzerland. They extend from the Oberalp Pass to the Klausen Pass, and are bordered by the Urner Alps to the west, the Lepontine Alps to the south and the Appenzell Alps to the northeast...

 valley within Glarus Süd

Glarus Süd

Glarus Süd is one of three municipalities of the canton of Glarus, Switzerland .Effective from 1 January 2011, Glarus Süd incorporates the former municipalities of Betschwanden, Braunwald, Elm, Engi, Haslen, Linthal, Luchsingen, Matt, Mitlödi, Rüti, Schwanden, Schwändi and Sool.With an area of ,...

, in the canton of Glarus

Canton of Glarus

The Canton of Glarus is a canton in east central Switzerland. The capital is Glarus.The population speaks a variety of Alemannic German.The majority of the population identifies as Christian, about evenly split between the Protestant and Catholic confessions.-History:According to legend, the...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

. It is formed by the Sernf, a right tributary of the Linth

Linth

The Linth is a Swiss river starting above Linthal the mountains of Glarus near the Klausen Pass and flowing from there north through the Glarus valley passing Schwanden, where it is joined by its main tributary Sernft, Ennenda, the town of Glarus, Netstal, and Näfels, from where it is channeled to...

. Situated in the Sernftal are the villages of Elm

Elm, Switzerland

-Culture:In 1981, the Wakker Prize was awarded to Elm for the development and preservation of its architectural heritage....

 (977 m) and Engi (812 m). The Panix Pass

Panix Pass

Panix Pass or Panixer Pass is a Swiss Alpine pass in the canton of Graubünden....

 at 2407 m connects the Sernftal with the anterior Rhine valley in Grisons.

Geography

The valley is the site of an important geological feature of the Glarus Alps

Glarus Alps

The Glarus Alps are a mountain range in central Switzerland. They extend from the Oberalp Pass to the Klausen Pass, and are bordered by the Urner Alps to the west, the Lepontine Alps to the south and the Appenzell Alps to the northeast...

, the Glarner Hauptüberschiebung, a notable fault in alpine geology

Geology of the Alps

The Alps form part of a Tertiary orogenic belt of mountain chains, called the Alpide belt, that stretches through southern Europe and Asia from the Atlantic all the way to the Himalayas. This belt of mountain chains was formed during the Alpine orogeny. A gap in these mountain chains in central...

.
A scale model of the feature is on exhibit in the American Museum of Natural History

American Museum of Natural History

The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...

.

Name

The name Sernf (earlier also Sernft) is of pre-Germanic origin, either Celtic or an example of Old European hydronymy

Old European hydronymy

Old European is the term used by Hans Krahe for the language of the oldest reconstructed stratum of European hydronymy in Central and Western Europe...

.
It derives from a hypothetical *Sarnivos, containing a PIE

Pie

A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients....

 root *ser "to flow".

The name of the Sernf river has received some attention in German online culture as the "fifth German word in -nf", popularized by Bastian Sick

Bastian Sick

Bastian Sick is a German journalist, translator and author.- History :Sick was born in Lübeck in 1965. He studied history and Romance philology, then became a literary editor and later columnist for German news magazine Der Spiegel....

 in his Spiegel Online

Spiegel Online

Spiegel Online , the online version of German weekly news magazine Der Spiegel, is one the most visited news websites written in the German language.- Company :...

 blog.
The word fünf "five" is the only genuinely German word with this ending, the others are early loanwords, including Hanf "hemp" (from kánnabis) and Senf "mustard" (from sinapis), and the toponym Genf "Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

", from Genava.