Euro confusion

Damian   Monday, October 18, 2004, 10:24 GMT
There seems to be some EU confusion over the spelling of the name of it's currency the "Euro" now in use in some constituent countries. They've had emergency meetings to try and resolve this latest Euro mini drama as Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary, Slovenia and Malta all want to use their own spellings for the currency, as it seems the accepted "Euro" form amounts to gibberish in their own languages. Isn't Europe an exciting and interesting place and makes you glad (some of the time) to be part it.

Lithuanian must be an amazing language with so many declensions you just wouldn't believe it. Does anyone in this forum speak it or understand it? A correspondent in a UK national newspaper today (a doctor from Edinburgh as it happens!) writes to say that the name of the European currency can be written in many ways, depending on its function in the sentence...case endings, etc. For some reason the genitive is causing headaches.

In Lithuanian, the Euro currency can be written as:

euras, euro, eurui, eura, euru, eure;
eurai, euru, eurams, eurus, eurais, eurose.

In the vocative case there would be a different form again, but that's only used in poetry, apparently, and nobody is likely to write a poem about the Euro...or are they?

Lithuanian sounds a nightmare language to learn! In comparison, English must be a doddle for the learner of our language.
Easterner   Monday, October 18, 2004, 10:57 GMT
There is a Lithuanian poster here, Vytenis. So let's wait and see, he may come across this topic sooner or later. By the way, I like Lithuanian, too. Once I stumbled on it on short-wave radio at night, and my feeling was it had the same musical accents as Russian, but of course the words were different. And I have repeatedly read that many Lithuanians can even understand Sanskrit, because the two languages are relatively close to each other!

Just to keep being on topic: as far as I know, the spelling Euro is perfectly acceptable in Hungary. Damian, where did you learn about this mini-drama? I haven't heard anything about it yet...
Easterner   Monday, October 18, 2004, 11:04 GMT
I can imagine that the matter is more complicated for Slavic and Baltic languages, with all those different inflections. For example, Slavic languages use the genitive after numbers, and the suffixes may differ from language to language. The only problem caused in Hungarian is that the final "-o" becomes lengthened (for example: "in euros" is "euróban"). On the other hand, the singular form is kept after numbers, too (therefore "two Euros" is "két Euro", while normally it would be "Eurók", but this form is not used for this particular currency) - I think this is unique among European languages.
Ed   Monday, October 18, 2004, 15:39 GMT
In Bulgarian, the Euro is pronounced Evro, an is spelled in Cyrillic.
Sanja   Monday, October 18, 2004, 16:40 GMT
"the name of the European currency can be written in many ways, depending on its function in the sentence"

Same thing in Bosnian. Euro can be used as:

euro, eura, euru, eurom (in singular)
euri, eura, eurima (in plural)

Other words can have even more cases (7 in singular and 7 in plural), but "euro" as a foreign word doesn't. We also spell it "euro" and pronounce it the same way (in our phonetic system of course, but I have no idea how to show it to you in English... LOL).
So like I said, all Slavic languages would be a nightmare for a foreigner.
Mxsmanic   Monday, October 18, 2004, 19:10 GMT
In English (the topic of this forum), euro is not capitalized and does not take an 's' in the plural; the same is true for cent.
Sanja   Monday, October 18, 2004, 19:12 GMT
I didn't know it doesn't take an "s" in the plural, I would always say 50 euros rather than 50 euro.
Ed   Monday, October 18, 2004, 21:10 GMT
Sanja,
can you tell me what "tetovaza" means in Serbo-Croatian/Bosnian?
Damian   Monday, October 18, 2004, 21:31 GMT
<<Damian, where did you learn about this mini-drama?>>

Easterner:

They are my words for yet another "minor" EU state of confusion over some issue or other....all part of the bureaucratic circus that makes up the whole system most of the time, it seems! I'm not sure about what the rest of the member countries think, but at times the Brits get pissed off being told what rules they have to abide by..even down to crazy things like bananas must not be too curvy and you can no longer produce certain cheeses made to certain specifications that have been made that way in the UK for centuries, or that Scottish bottled water must contain the exact proportion of mineral contents to meet with European standards, even though it will result in a product of inferior and less beneficial quality ultimately. All a drama, and the Euro spelling sideshow is just a mini offshoot! ;-)

I'm still keen on a form of Europish though...a mixture of all our languages combined to make one we will all understand and speak in time. This will prevent any resentment or invidious feelings that one present day language will have a perceived advantage over another.
Mi5 Mick   Tuesday, October 19, 2004, 00:02 GMT
>>I didn't know it doesn't take an "s" in the plural, I would always say 50 euros rather than 50 euro.<<

"Official practice followed in English-language EU legislation is to use the words euro and cent as both singular and plural. However normal usage outside of such legislation is to use the plurals euros and cents; this somewhat inconsistent position is actually endorsed by the European Commission Translation Service."

http://www.fact-index.com/e/eu/euro.html

Cling to your 50 euros ;)
kobb   Tuesday, October 19, 2004, 03:22 GMT
"all Slavic languages would be a nightmare for a foreigner."

bah. I am learning Russian and it is a synch.
Sanja   Tuesday, October 19, 2004, 14:52 GMT
Ed, "tetovaza" means "tattoo".
Sanja   Tuesday, October 19, 2004, 14:55 GMT
And when I mentioned all these cases that can be used in my language (as far as this noun is concerned), I forgot to add one more, so it would be:

euro, eura, euru, eurom (in singular)
euri, eura, eure, eurima (in plural)
Easterner   Tuesday, October 19, 2004, 15:39 GMT
"Official practice followed in English-language EU legislation is to use the words euro and cent as both singular and plural. However normal usage outside of such legislation is to use the plurals euros and cents; this somewhat inconsistent position is actually endorsed by the European Commission Translation Service."

Mi5 Mick, it was quite instructive to read on this paragraph. Everybody seems to have their own version of saying "cent". This is symbolic of the EU as a whole. Most countries would like to have it their own way, or not at all, like the British. This is why I'm eurosceptical on the long run.
blah   Tuesday, October 19, 2004, 15:47 GMT
Saying something liked 12 cent sounds really strange, if you want advice from someone in a English speaking country that actually has cents, use the s!

I have no idea about Euro/Euros, I don't think anyone would really care as long as you spend them.