The Great Pop vs. Soda Controversy

[T Roosevelt]

INTRODUCTION
Since the earliest research into the the English Language as spoken in North America was begun by Noah Webster in the early 18th century, the regional variations in dialect have always been the most challenging and difficult to explain field. Since the development of carbonated beverage in 1886, one of linguistic geography's most important and least investigated phenomena has been the sharp regional divisions in the use of the terms "pop" and "soda." Due to the domination of hard-line conservative lingusitic geographers in such leading institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford and the University of the West Indies, this dilemma has been swept under the rug . . . until now. Using the new technologies of the Internet and the World Wide Web, I and my colleagues at the California Institute of Technology and Lewis & Clark College are undertaking a bold new research into this fascinating area.

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[meegbear]

1. North of Boston ...

we call it "tonic".

[coyote]

15. Tonic if you're like 65+ years old....

Soda for the young whipper snappers.


At least that´s my experience from the northshore.

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. Here is SE Michigan, it's pop. When we first moved here from sodaland

I ordered a soda..and got a float....:crazy:

[dolo amber]

22. When I moved to KY

The first time I ordered a diet soda...the 19 yr old waitress looked at me confusedly and then said "I don't think they make diet soda."

After a minute or so of clarification I understood she thought I meant diet soda WATER. :D:D

[jimbo fett]

3. They're both wrong. In the South all soda/pop are "cokes" (small c)

[arwalden]

5. In Georgia We Called Cokes and Pepi "Co-Cola"... Not "Coca-Cola"...

just plain old cocoloa.

-- Allen

[hlthe2b]

21. My early years were in the midwest... We also referred all as "cokes."

It was a generic term, but, I have to admit, I was largely a cocacola family, with the occasional 7-up.

[Lars39]

28. I usually hear the older folks call them cocolas.

Mostly I hear "cokes" from the younger set. "Soft drink" is usually used in a more formal setting.

[trof]

4. Down in Dixie

it's a soft drink.

[Whitacre D_WI]

6. Soda Pop

n/t

[mopinko]

7. in illinois

yup, soda has ice cream, with a carbonated something. any sweet, carbonated drink is a pop. but i have folks in milwaukee, and sometimes use soda. it works fine everywhere but at a soda fountian.

[ikojo]

14. In Springfield Illinois you either call

everything a coke or a pepsi or it is sodi.

Took me a long time to break that habit when I moved away from Springfield.

[FunBobbyMucha]

8. Moving from Ohio to SC

It magically went from "Pop" to "Soda." Or you call a Coke or Pepsi by its commercial name. You ask for a Pop in SC and someone looks past you for your father.

[spooky3]

17. yep

Indy to Ohio: pop in both places
Ohio to DC area: learned to say "soda" or just "coke" for all sodas

[Faygo Kid]

9. Michigan: Pop.

Always has been.

[youngred]

10. It's POP

no matter how many times my friends at college laugh at me or make me repeat myself I shall never say S*da when referring to delicious carbonated beverage of my choosing

POP FOREVER

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

24. It's soda!

You lie.

[youngred]

26. might've known you'd chime in

you mangy little pipsqueak! :P

It's Pop and you know it, but like all sill Lake Georger's you insist on calling it S*da, which is patently bollocks

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

27. Eh! You're so WRONG!

All you lazy Western New Yorkers just don't like to have to use two syllables when speaking. At least here in "the lago" we know how to not equate our beverage of choice with the same word used for a horrible type of music. :D

[youngred]

29. At least we know the correct usage of the term

you nerf herder!

A soda is a carbonated beverage served with Ice Cream...POP is a carbonated beverage. As for lazy, having been a resident of both "the lago" (which is lazy slang for Lake George you lazy-head) and of western NY I decidedly side with POP

[bearfan454]

11. It's still pop to me.

That might be a yankee saying but I even taught my 3 1/2 year old granddaughter to say pop. Pop rules.

[SiobhanClancy]

12. It's tonic,or soda..

but NEVER "pop"

[nykiera]

13. Soda

Upstate NY

[youngred]

19. tha even depends

upstate (syracuse-to albany) its soda
western (Rochester, Buffalo, southern tier) its Pop.

I was born near Albany, learned Soda from everyone but my parents (who were from Rochester and Buffalo) and moved to Rochester when I was 5 which is why I say it the correct way...POP

[T Roosevelt]

16. The map seems to correlate...

"pop" in the midwest
"soda" in the northeast
"Coke" in the southeast

[ScreamingMeemie]

18. Except Wisconsin=Soda....it's why I had such a hard time

assimilating when I moved here. That and there are no bubblers (drinking fountains) in Michigan. :hi:

[Nikia]

32. I had a hard time with that too

The word "soda" used to really p*** me off when I cam here, especially with their funny accents. I had never heard the word "bubbler" and had to ask what the word meant.

[youngred]

20. except its soda in Penn

and eastern upstate NY ad Pop in Western NY, which is not the midwest, and in DC MD, NVA its Soda

[Bunny]

23. It's pop in Western PA!

Soda is that carbonated water you mix with Scotch, or something.

[JVS]

25. Pittsburgh drinks pop, so do Detroit and Minnesota

Since these are the three places that I spent the most time in as a child, I never got into the conflict as a kid.

[grasswire]

30. so...

....how do you order root beer or lemon lime in the southeast?

"I'll have a root beer coke"?

And how do you order gin and tonic in North Shore?

"I'll have a Tanqueray and tonic tonic"?

[dae]

31. In Louisian, it's usually a Soft Drink or Coke.