How should the word euro be spelt in Maltese? It’s not euro. Nor is it the more outrageous jurow or juro.

ewro – with a w instead of the u – should be the correct way it is spelt in Maltese.

At least that’s what a report of the National Council for the Maltese Language on the name of the European currency in Maltese has suggested.

This will apply both in the singular and plural forms. And by the way, it is a masculine noun.

“The only form that complies with Maltese orthography and properly integrates therein is ewro (pl. ewro), and is thus the only form which the Council for the Maltese Language can propose,” the report said.

The same report has suggested that the correct spelling for the euro cent should be centezmu, with a dot on the c and the z, with the plural centezmi, like we already do with the Maltese cent.

However, the EU might be reluctant to accept this spelling as official in its legislation, since it differs from the official spelling of euro and cent. In this respect, the report makes some strong arguments, which should be used to defend these linguistic diversities.

“As occurs in other languages, certain orthographical forms in Maltese (including those suggested in this report) do not match those of most of the orthographies of the other member States, because each language has its own writing system.

“These letters are an integral part of the Maltese language with its own particular character and not whimsical or capricious choices or a luxury we can do without.

“This particular aspect of the Maltese language needs to be stressed in our proposals. In this we might find the support, and perhaps a precedent, of other official languages,” the report said.

For instance, there are languages which, like Maltese, do not spell the name of the European continent with eu but with different letters (e.g. Latvian ei-, Irish eo-, Slovenian ev-).

In German, the words Euro and Cent are written with a capital letter in keeping with the traditional orthography of the same language. In many of the languages, the forms are subject to other changes by virtue of declination (e.g. Finnish senttiä, sentit, Swedish euron, eurorna, etc.).

In Greek, not only were the words for the euro and the cent transcribed into the Greek alphabet, but a completely different name was allowed for the cent .

“We should bear in mind that some of the States concerned, according to certain sources including Malta, have strongly voiced their case with regard to this situation.

“Such countries persist with the argument of diversity in spite of a tendency to level out the linguistic forms to a single word.

“This is a tendency largely displayed by sectors which are not particularly sensitive to the linguistic reality, and indeed much less sensitive to it than the very people who will be using these words once the decision is taken.

“Our hope is that this levelling attitude will be overcome and due respect shown to the individual character of the different languages, the diversity of which the EU so actively promotes,” the National Council for the Maltese Language said in its report.