Spelling Euro

John Yunker is founder of Byte Level Research and author of the widely acclaimed book, Beyond Borders: Web Globalization Strategies and editor of Global By Design. He has covered the emerging field of Web globalization for half a decade and has published a wide range of reports dedicated to best practices in Web localization and internationalization. The most recent report is The Web Globalization Report Card 2005. His blog Going Global focuses on the risks and rewards of expanding into new geographic and cultural markets, from Web globalization to international marketing to global usability. In this piece, he discusses the Euro spelling debate:

Latvia has "localized" the spelling of the euro to better fit its national language. Says this article... "The 'eu' diphthong is alien to the Latvian language. We don't have such a sound, so we will use 'eiro'," Education Minister Ina Druviete, a trained linguist, told a cabinet meeting at which ministers unanimously opted for the "ei" word over the "eu" one.

And that's not all; apparently Latvia is not alone. Malta will spell it "ewro" and Greeks spell it "EYPO" -- when will the madness end? I don't see what the big deal is with these changes. I don't speak Latvian but I think I could figure out what eiro stands for. Even for those who don't, surely the little euro symbol will allevitate any doubts. I think its human nature to modify and mutate names to make them your own. And, once you do localize something to fit your needs, you truly make it your own, which is a positive sign for the long-term survival of the euro, or eiro, or ewro.

More on the Ewro here and here; National Council sticks to "Ewro"