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The euro: linguistic concerns
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Sashadroogie



Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 6:19 pm    Post subject: The euro: linguistic concerns Reply with quote

A few money questions for all you posters out there.

Should the currency called the euro be capitalised or not?

What is the plural form?

What is the abbreviation for the euro?


I have my own ideas on this, as you can see, and I've flicked through wikis etc. But how do other posters usually treat this word?
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JN



Joined: 17 Jan 2008
Posts: 214

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 7:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In English I don't capitalize euro. In German I do.
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Kofola



Joined: 20 Feb 2009
Posts: 159
Location: Slovakia

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 7:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
Should the currency called the euro be capitalised or not?


No, in the same way as the pound and dollar are not capitalised.


Quote:
What is the plural form?


euros (although I believe the EU initially tried to get everyone to use euro for the plural, but I know of no language that does this)


Quote:
What is the abbreviation for the euro?


Not sure what you mean by this. But I suppose there is the international code EUR and the symbol �.
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scot47



Joined: 10 Jan 2003
Posts: 15343

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 7:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

British tabloid papers disapprove of them. Nasty foreign things. UK banks refuse to change 500 Euro notes. I ALWAYS capitalise the word !
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johnslat



Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 7:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, in English Japanese currency is 1 yen, two yen, etc. ANd there's this:

"Renminbi" is uncountable. This is true of most Chinese nouns, though. Just as in English you need to say "a head of cattle" or "a glass/drop/etc. of water" rather than "a cattle" or "a water," so in Chinese you typically need to say "a [measure word (no 'of')] person" or "three [measure word] poorly written essays." The same is true of "renminbi" -- e.g., "five [yuan/kuai] renminbi," although of course you usually don't say the name of the currency.

In English, currencies tend to be countable (e.g. "five US dollars"), so there's no very good way to translate "yuan." But if you were to force "yuan" to become an English word just for the sake of argument, it would be used as follows: "One yuan of USD is worth 6.83 yuan of RMB."

Regards,
John
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Qaaolchoura



Joined: 10 Oct 2008
Posts: 539
Location: 21 miles from the Syrian border

PostPosted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

johnslat wrote:
Well, in English Japanese currency is 1 yen, two yen, etc.

I tend to treat "lira" as being its own plural form. I'm not sure why, I know the correct plural is "lire" in English and "liralar" in Turkish. Maybe it's because "lira" and "lire" sound the same to me. Or maybe it's because Turks tend to say "tl" (pronounced "tey-ley") insteal of "lira," and "tl" does seem to uninflected for number. Or it might just be because I was in Korea before, and got used to "won," which behaves just like "yen." (Though I think in Korea I mostly referred to 1000 won as a "dollar," in English and 10 won as a "cent.")

Any rate, point is, I have no problem using "euro" as a plural, and will try to do this from now on.

Now, a question of my own: what's the adjective form of "euro"? I propose "eural." It just sounds right for some reason.

~Q
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Sashadroogie



Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise

PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 2:57 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Good point about 'lira'. Few people would know about 'lire' and so most either treat the currency as an uncountable, or even say 'liras' - which is strange to my ears.

Other currencies which end in vowels tend to be awkward. 'Drachma' for example. Plural is supposed to be 'drachmae', with the result that it also tends to be treated as an uncountable. Sesterce springs to mind too in this regard.

So 'euro' as an uncountable seems to be following an established pattern of sorts. As for no language actually doing this with 'euro', English speakers in Ireland nearly always use it as an uncountable in their daily transactions.

The capitalisation of it is odd. We don't say Dollar or Pound. The best explanation I've come across so far is that using a capital E signifies that is is not being used as a prefix - as in 'eurobabes' or 'eurodance'.

As for abbreviations, I have seen EUR, EU, and even E, as well as the difficult to keystroke �. A lack of consistency which annoys me!!!
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Sashadroogie



Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise

PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 2:58 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

What's the adjective form of dollar or pound?
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johnslat



Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:08 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dear Sasha,

Why, the same word, old bean: dollar bill and pound sterling.

Regards,
John
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Sashadroogie



Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise

PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 3:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dear Johnslat

Where are the adjectives there? I only see compound nouns... even the strange British one. A pound weight of sterling


Sasha
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Kofola



Joined: 20 Feb 2009
Posts: 159
Location: Slovakia

PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 8:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
As for no language actually doing this with 'euro', English speakers in Ireland nearly always use it as an uncountable in their daily transactions.


Sorry for some reason I thought you were just asking about accepted practice (written), although looking back at the OP I realise that that was just my interpretation. I was just talking about what is standard official practice in the UK (found in most style guides). I too use euro in the singular (three euro) just as I do for pounds.
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elliot_spencer



Joined: 26 Feb 2007
Posts: 495

PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 8:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ireland uses euro as the plural.

In Italy Euri is plural but no one really uses it - the odd person when speaking correctly.

Euro is written with an E on the mainland and euro in English speaking lands...

The UK n Eire have always gotta be different after all!
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Sashadroogie



Joined: 17 Apr 2007
Posts: 11061
Location: Moskva, The Workers' Paradise

PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 8:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, that is true. Most people in Ireland do not say 'euros'. Look at this clip about Napoleon on the BBC. The reporter seems to be Irish, judging by name and accent. Listen to the very last word in the report.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-20539530
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johnslat



Joined: 21 Jan 2003
Posts: 13859
Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 1:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dear Sasha,

"I only see compound nouns."

My goodness - that's a strange malady. Oh - maybe what you meant was this:

"I see only compound nouns." Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy

Regards,
John
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Qaaolchoura



Joined: 10 Oct 2008
Posts: 539
Location: 21 miles from the Syrian border

PostPosted: Fri Nov 30, 2012 1:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Sashadroogie wrote:
So 'euro' as an uncountable seems to be following an established pattern of sorts. As for no language actually doing this with 'euro', English speakers in Ireland nearly always use it as an uncountable in their daily transactions

Keep in mind that the euro in this case isn't actually uncountable. Rather, it's a count noun that is also its own plural, as is often used for game, as with fish, deer, elk, moose. Though in the latter two cases the words are loans from languages without plural forms, and English is a lazy but accepting *beep* that likes to take words as they are, native plural forms and all.

Another interesting thing that I've noticed about the count/non-count noun distinction is that that we also have nouns that are always plural, such as "police" and "people" (and I think "government" in British English, yes?), but can still, like non-count nouns, be treated as a singular and counted (e.g. "all the peoples of Eurasia.")

Regards,
~Q
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