LL-L "Currency" 2002.02.05 (04) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 05.FEB.2002 (04) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at scotstext.org]
Subject: "Currency"

> From: "Andy Eagle" <andy at scots-online.org>
> Subject: LL-L "Currency" 2002.02.04 (07) [E]
>
> Colin Wilson wrote:
>
> > Andy Eagle wrote:
> >
> > >Euros is of course a natural English plural formation. In Scots I would
> > >expect Euro as both singular and plural as is usual with nouns of
> > >measurement.
> >
> > That only holds with numbers, though, doesn't it? You might speak about
> > "twintie euro" in the same way that you'd talk about "twintie pound",
> > but I
> > don't
> > think anyone would talk about going to the bank "tae buy some euro". It
> > really
> > would have to be "tae buy some euros", whatever the ECB might try to
> > dictate.
>
> Some nouns do have the same form in the singular and plural.
> "tae buy a sheep", "tae buy some sheep", is "tae buy some euro" all that
> strange?

Talking about English, because Scots plurals might be flexible
enough to accomodate the official recommendations, I think the
problem with a sentence like "to buy some euro" is that it
implies that this "euro" is uncountable. This isn't the way
money is spoken of in English.

With sheep, on the other hand, the uncountable form is "mutton".
The distinct word makes it a bit of an exception (along with such
words as "beef" and "pork" that also came from French), so these
are irregular forms, the regular forms being "lambs" (countable),
"lamb" (uncountable), "chickens", "chicken" &c. I think what these
words have in common is that they're animals (countable) which get
converted into food (uncountable).

The only English word I can think of that follows the "official"
euro pattern is "fish", but I think again that this has something
to do with it being edible - it may have once been "fishes" being
caught and made into "fish" but the uncountable form started to be
used for the countable form. This may be why the plural of "sheep"
is also "sheep", except that the original uncountable plural has
disappeared because after spreading to the countable form it was
replaced with the new uncountable "mutton" (just my conjecture).

I can see how you could convert euros into food (ie buy some!), but
that would be converting "euros" (countable).

Or do they mean we're going to have "euro" on tap?  Fill me a
bucket, then!  :)

Sandy
http://scotstext.org
A dinna dout him, for he says that he
On nae accoont wad ever tell a lee.
                          - C.W.Wade,
                    'The Adventures o McNab'
----------

From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Currency

Sandy,

You wrote:

> Or do they mean we're going to have "euro" on tap?  Fill me a
> bucket, then!  :)

Me too, please (unless "tap" is a slang word for "ATM machine" or "teller
machine" here).

I hardly think that "euro" (like "pound," "dollar," "buck," can or will be
used as an uncountable noun like "money," "moola," "bread," "dough," etc.
(*"She pretends she has plenty of euro" vs "She pretends she has plenty of
euros.")  Though ... on second thought ... stranger things have happened.

Has the term "euro flow" (and derivatives such as "euro flow problems") been
invented yet?

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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