Is the curdled-milk-based, creamy food with a tart flavor, you might like to eat for breakfast spelled yogurt or yoghurt?
"Yogurt is fermented milk, made thick and creamy by lactic acid and bacteria."
Borrowed from Turkish in the 17th century, the word had such early spellings as yoghurd, yogourt, yaourt and yahourt. Nowadays, yogurt and yoghurt remain common variant spellings of the word, and neither has all its own meanings.
"Yoghurt is good for you, adding healthy bacteria to your digestive system."
YOGURT is preferred in NAm English. The spelling was settled around 1960.
"Frozen yogurt makes a delicious dessert — especially with plenty of chocolate sprinkles."
YOGHURT is a common spelling in the main varieties of English from outside North America. It is seldom used in AmE.
"Yoghurt is a tasty food made even more delectable by the addition of sweeteners and fruit, or in savory dishes by salt and spices."
In BrE, yoghourt, yoghurt, and yogurt vied for ascendancy through the middle 20th century, but by 2000 yoghurt was more common by a large margin.
"Turkish shepherds had been turning milk into yoghurt as early at 3000 BC."
That said, while yoghurt is much more common in BrE than in AmE, it still isn't the dominant spelling in the UK. In fact, both spellings roughly approximate each other in BrE writing.
Not only is yogurt a healthy snack, it contains lactic acid that promotes healthy skin."
YOGHOURT is a third possible BrE spelling of the word, but it is pretty rare in this century.
"It consisted mainly of a tomato stew, chapatties, yoghourt and fruit."
Writer and etymologist Michael Quinion, who documents changes in language, says most British dictionaries use the AmE version as the preferred spelling.
"There's no right or wrong here, but evidence suggests that yogurt will become dominant."
Although the English equivalent of the Turkish "g" has traditionally been "gh" and, along with NZ and Australia, Britain has mostly retained the "gh' spelling, Quinion says:
"Without "h" it's more crisp and short, the word is spelt as it sounds."
He also says:
"The Americans have been using yogurt as the correct spelling for at least 150 years."
He adds:
"It does seem that yoghurt will slowly disappear for good."
Whatever the spelling, the word is usually pronounced [ˈjɒɡət] in the UK, [ˈjəʊɡət] in North America, Australia and South Africa, and either pronunciation is used in NZ and Ireland.
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