Soda? Pop? Coke?
Our favorite Uncle notes:
You can tell when you’ve hit yankee country. When the gas stations stop calling it “soda” or “soft drink” and start calling it “pop”.
Since I grew up in “yankee country” (by which I assume he means “the North,” rather than its true meaning, roughly 3/4 of greater NYC), but always called it “soda” (never pop), this puzzled me a bit. Also, if anything, in the South, people seem more likely to call it “Coke,” whether or not it actually is, than to call it “soda.” And then there’s the uniquely New Orleanian abomination: cold drinks. (Imagine a vendor shouting out “Ice cold cold drinks!”)
Anyway, that got me curious, and a quick Google turned up this:
Pop vs. Soda Map
Cold drinks? I’ve never heard that, and I have spent considerable time in New Orleans. This is used to refer to soft drinks?
As someone raised in New Hampshire, I must object strenuously to your characterization of “Yankee”. A Yankee is somebody who lives north of the notches.
If calling it Coke makes you a Southerner, then I’m a Southerner, too. Then again, SoCal is south of the part of the South I live in now.
It was always “soda” for me. I always thought of “pop” as a Midwestern term, which it apparently is – but also, I see, a Great Plains, northern Rockies, and Pacific Northwest term.
Most of the people of which, I’m inclined to believe, do not consider themselves “Yankees.”
In Massachusetts, especially in the Cape Cod area, we called it “Tonic”. When I went back last year I found that some still do.
Under The LobsterScope
I don’t think anyone actually considers themselves to be a “Yankee”. That’s the South’s term for people not like them; the rest of us just consider ourselves “Americans” and are still waiting for the Southern pity party to dry up.
As for the map, I’m also surprised that “pop” extends as far West as it does, though perhaps I shouldn’t be. I was raised in California by parents from upstate New York and Illinois, and we called it “soda pop”, which nicely combines the two.
Other odd things: why are there those isolated outposts of “soda” in Wisconsin and near St. Louis? Why is Alaska such a crazy quilt? Why is North Carolina so mixed? (DC I could understand, but NC, I would expect, would be firmly part of the Southern Coke Alliance.)
It’s interesting how clean the geographic split on lexicon can be sometimes. I remember taking a few Linguistics classes in college and seeing the splits for pail/bucket, and pan/skillet. It was pretty cool.
Digg -
The whole study of regionalism in speech is an interesting one if only because it reveals that despite all our homogenized media, we do still have them.
Going even one step further, I have a copy of an article from about 30 years ago which could with reasonable accuracy predict what part of New Jersey you were from – regionalisms can be that localized.
btchakir:
Isn’t “tonic” carbonated quinine water? Very nasty to drink plain (as I discovered when I once wrongly assumed it was the same as regular carbonated mineral water). Not at all the same as soda/pop/coke.
KTK:
That’s the South’s term for people not like them
Canadians call us that, too. Well, “Yanks,” actually, and they don’t care what part of the US you’re from. As far as they’re concerned, you could be from Savannah, GA and be a Yank.
Xrlq:
Calling it “Coke” is the worst abomination.
P1: “Want a coke?”
P2: “Sure.”
P1: “What kind? I have orange or lemon-lime.”
P2: “But I just wanted a Coke!”
btchakir:
I agree, “tonic” is unflavored seltzer, and that’s not what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about a generic name for any carbonated soft drink (Coke, Pepsi, 7-Up, Squirt, Dr. Pepper, etc.).
The question about “tonic” is where the fuck do the calories come from. It’s basically like drinking soda, calorie-wise. Yet, gin and Crystal Light sucks ass! What’s a waist-watching binge drinker to do?…
I don’t know. I’ve been calling it pop my entire life, but I didn’t realize that anyone outside of chicago/midwest did.
“still waiting for the Southern pity party to dry up.”
I can’t imagine a time when Southerners will stop feeling pity for Yankees. To do so would be simply uncharitable.