WNY colloquialisms and accents

[Jeromeville]

Buffalo: people say "pop" and "the 90"

Rochester: people say "pop" and "90"

Syracuse: people say "soda" and "90"

I've lived in Syracuse my whole life and never, not once ever, have heard people refer to carbonated drinks as "pop." That word just isn't used here. Not even as "soda pop." I have to think that the word "pop" had its origins in the Midwest and slid over into the Buffalo area and toward Rochester, but just never got as far east as Syracuse.

As for CNY, it is a vague region but most definitely includes the core counties of Onondaga, Oswego, Madison, Cortland and Cayuga, and generally speaking, Oneida County too. Syracuse media covers a pretty wide swath of the state's midsection but I don't think anyone considers all that to be "CNY." It's more like "Central New York and its outlying loosely affiliated rural colonies" :-) The Post-Standard routinely runs the middle third of NY State - from the North Country to the Southern Tier (Binghamton area) on its weather maps, like a "slice" of territory.

Syracuse media will report on stories as far west as Wayne and Seneca counties and as far east as Herkimer, but no farther. We don't get news about Amsterdam here, for example. We hear a lot about Ithaca too, but basically just the crime and accident stories (nothing about Ithaca governance). And Fort Drum is often covered. I would say that Syracusans definitely feel more association with the Utica-Rome area, and even the Ithaca area, than they do with Rochester. Syracuse's location is very centralized -- there isn't a Great Lake blocking us to the north or to the west as in Rochester or Buffalo, so there is more of a sense of connection with more parts of the state.