eiro, euras, evro, ewro or Euro

Latvia, which is due to adopt the euro in 2008, has said it will call the euro the “eiro” because the “eu” dipthong doesn’t exist in Latvian. Joining the Baltic EU newcomer in its linguistic rebellion are neighboring Lithuania, which has opted for “euras”, Hungary, which wants the “o” to have an accent, Malta, which prefers ewro, and Slovenia evro.

The dissent over what to call the euro came to light shortly after the EU expanded by 10 members in May 2004. It was then that EU officials found that there had been translation errors in the Council regulation calling for the single currency to be called by a single name.



Hmmmm, For every 100 people in the European Union…

47 speak English – 13 as a mother tongue
30 speak German – 18 as a mother tongue
23 speak French – 12 as a mother tongue
15 speak Italian – 13 as a mother tongue
14 speak Spanish – 9 as a mother tongue
10 speak Polish – 9 as a mother tongue
6 speak Dutch – 5 as a mother tongue
6 speak Russian – 1 as a mother tongue

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