Re: OT: coins and currency

Andreas Johansson wrote:
> Quoting R A Brown <ray@...>:
[snip]

> From some googling, _eurorna_ indeed appears to be the offical definite plural
> form in Swedish, but common is also _eurona_, which is prefered by some
> authorities (assuming writing a newspaper column on language use makes you an
> authority).
>
> Personally, I find the form _eurorna_ cringe-inducing.
Yep - and I cannot imagine the plural beings always 'euro' and 'cent' in
practice in English. I would expect _both_ euro _and_ euros, just we use
both pound and pounds now. For example, we say 'a five pound note', 'a
ten pound note', and a price like £5.50 is more likely to be said as
'five pound fifty' than 'five pounds fifty' tho £5.00 is more likely to
be 'five pounds' than 'five pound'. But the -s would always be included
in something like 'How many pounds have you got?'

While 'five euros fifty' will come quite naturally to us anglophones, I
find it difficult to imagine many people saying 'How many euro have you
got?'

Also, if the Greeks are allowed to call 100th of a euro one lepto, I do
not see why more flexibility could not have been given to other nations.
For example, if francophones prefer the term 'centime', why could they
not use it?

The official directive seemed a tad over-prescriptive to me. Also I
notice that no Irish forms were included. Yet Ireland has adopted the
euro as it currency and AFAIU the Irish has the same official standing
as the other languages given. So why wasn't it included, I wonder.


--
Ray
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