The Malta Language Council yesterday told The Malta Independent that the EU’s motto of unity in diversity should also apply to the spelling of the common European currency.
The council’s president Manwel Mifsud said: “Europe’s motto is ‘Unity in diversity’. Applied to the names of the EU currency, this could mean that, while the euro carries the same value in all EU countries within the Eurozone, its name takes different forms in the different countries because they have different languages and different writing systems. What is so strange in all this?”
Mr Mifsud was giving answers to questions put by this newspaper over the wrangle as to how to spell “euro” – bearing in mind that the correct Maltese spelling is “ewro”.
Mr Mifsud said that in all EU languages, the name for the euro has so far been formed out of the first two syllables of the name “Europe” in the particular language. By the same measure, the Maltese name should be ewro (from Ewropa), he said. Latvia has praised Malta for wanting to use the “ewro” spelling, seeing as they have the same problem, spelling it “eiro”.
“The Latvians call it eiro, the Slovenians evro, Lithuanians euras and the Hungarians euró. So much for European linguistic diversity,” he said.
Asked whether the council was considering speaking to its Latvian counterparts to find a common stance, the council said that it was not the National Council’s responsibility to take initiatives at the intergovernmental level.
“Its mission is to give expert advice to the national government on linguistic issues. However, it is one of the National Council’s duties to maintain regular and frequent contacts with international organisations with similar functions and exchange views and resources with them,” said Mr Mifsud.
“In fact, the National Council has discussed this issue with other national institutions for language at the academic level to get a deeper insight into this particular situation,” he said.
When this newspaper asked if the council was prepared to go to court over the issue in similar fashion to what was announced by Latvian Education Minister, Mr Mifsud said: “Professor Ina Druviete, who is also a linguist, made such a strong statement for Latvia in her capacity as Education Minister.
The National Council has discussed and published its suggestions (which may be consulted at www.kunsilltalmalti.gov.mt) which have met almost universal consent,” he said.
He concluded: “Our hope is that good sense will prevail locally and that, in this matter as well, the EU institutions will live up to their excellent tradition of celebrating diversity.”