U.S. English Foundation Research

 

LITHUANIA

Language Research

8. Miscellaneous: What else can be found about languages and minorities?

Updated (October 2004)

HOW EURO WILL BE CALLED IN LITHUANIA?

The Lithuanian government is concerned about Brussels’ insistence to use a unitary form of the word “euro” in all member states.

According to a EU observer’s letter, drafted by the State Commission on the Lithuanian Language and addressed to the Dutch Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers with a copy to the European Commission President, Roman Prodi, a non-inflected form of the term “euro” is unacceptable for the Lithuanian language.1

Since Lithuanian is a highly inflected language, the lack of different endings would render many sentences incomprehensible to the Lithuanian speakers. As an example, the letter cited the differences between “gra