Parlor Spider...Step In, Little Fly

Insightful thoughts and/or rants from atop the soapbox from one who wishes to share the "right" opinion with everyone.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Yogurt From Turkey?

The secret to becoming a skilful writer, I'm told, is to begin with a titillating title (or use alliteration). I know that idea was expounded to the students with whom I worked in English Comp last semester. Hence, the affiliation between Turkey and yogurt. While it might not seem like much to you, it's the spelling of "yogurt" that has become controversial in Great Britain as linguists try to analyse how to do so correctly...ostensibly because the Americans have been misspelling it for 150 years: a fact which seems to have convinced many in England to adopt the same mistake as rule...I mean, if it's on TV and yoghurt cartons and everything...
You know about words like "theatre" or "centre" or "cheque" which have a slightly different spelling in England than they do here in the U S of A. We smile and think to ourselves how quaint and uirky they are: lost in Victrian times, never for one moment thinking that the British spellings might be labelling us as the miscreants. But back to yogurt.
It seems that the country of Turkey first gave yogurt to the world as a way of getting rid of spoiled milk, I suspect. Anyway, Turks spelled the word "yogurt." So far, so good. It would appear, however, that in translating the letter "g" from Turkish to English, it is represented as the letters "gh"; hence, the British spelling of the word has always been "yoghurt." Now, it seems, many English manufacturers have been deleting the extra consonant, signalling a change to a more American language that is leaving purists in a state of apoplexy...this furor has even extended to the pages of the food industry trade journal The Grocer which decries the abominable spelling change as yet another intrusion of America's crass colonialism into the real English language.
The fact that the Oxford English Dictionary (it even sounds British, don't you think?) spells it without the letter "h" has done nothing to dampen the ardor of the conservatives who remain adamant in their defence of "what's proper." No word on how the word is spelled in the encyclopaedia. Both New Zealand and Australia have thus far refused to join the ranks of "h" users, modelling thier spelling on the Queen's way, but it won't be long before we get to them,too!
As for me, I get queasy at the thought of ingesting live bacteria, with or without the letter "h" involved.
I choose cheese curds.
BTW, see how many words YOU can find that I've spelled like they do in England...other than the ones I've put in italics! as well as my blatant (mis)use of alliteration. You're never too old to learn something!

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