U.S. Regional Vocabulary Differences (population, people, cons, school)
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Heh, this topic is right up my alley. First of all, a map showing the soda vs. pop vs. coke divide:
As for a list of different terms (and pronunciations) used across the country, here is a great linguistic survey with maps to show regional prominence (although sometimes it's clearer to look at the state-by-state data):
Now I am from and in Texas and while I do say "fixin to" I have never heard of anyone fixen to go to the cowboy parade unless it was back win the Dallas Cowboys actaully won the SuperBowl! LOL I leaved in Omaha and knew I was out of my area by them asking my for pop and soda when it should have been just coke! Lived in East Enterprise Indiana for 2 years (by Cinci, Ohio usually not on the maps!) That "please" always got to me and took me forever to figure out and then the concept of fast and slow time...(when one changes daylight to standard time cause at the time I lived in a spot some did and some did not so you had to ask fast or slow. My neighbor across the street used a different time half the year from me...
I wasn't implying that all of them were exclusive to New England, but most of them are at least much more common in N.E. than in most of the rest of the country. For example, I don't know of anyone outside New England who refers to going into the basement as going "down cellar"...
Most of y'all may have seen this, but as concerns the topic of coke/soda/pop here is a survey map showing responses from across the country when people were asked their generic term for a soft drink. Being a Texan, "coke" is always the way I have heard and used it.
When my cousins from Milwaukee were visiting once when we were all kids (I lived in Texas at the time) we went to the mall and one of my cousins asked me where the "bubbler" was. I asked him to repeat himself since I didn't think I had heard him correctly, and he said the same thing, "bubbler". At that point we pass a water fountain, he sees it and he says "oh, there it is." Apparently in Wisconsin water fountains are bubblers. However, I live in Madison now and I have never heard anyone refer to it as such.
He also called the ATM a "time machine"; I have since learned that there's a bank here called "Tyme", and that's what that refers to.
"Bubbler" is probably one of the quirkier terms in Wisconsin.
What we call ATMs, "Tyme machines", are due to the fact that a company called Tyme serviced the first ATM machines in the state. TYME is an acronym for "Taking Your Money Everywhere".
I have noticed a difference between the use of the words "take" and "bring" in New England states and where I was born in the North Carolina mountains. I would never say, "Bring it to him." If it is going away from me it is being "taken" not "brought."
I wasn't implying that all of them were exclusive to New England, but most of them are at least much more common in N.E. than in most of the rest of the country. For example, I don't know of anyone outside New England who refers to going into the basement as going "down cellar"...
We always said "going down cellar" where I grew up in Rochester, NY.
"Bubbler" is probably one of the quirkier terms in Wisconsin.
What we call ATMs, "Tyme machines", are due to the fact that a company called Tyme serviced the first ATM machines in the state. TYME is an acronym for "Taking Your Money Everywhere".
The origin of ther term "bubbler" was explained to me as coming from a manufacturing company in Milwaukee that made drinking fountains under the brand name "Bubbler". (Kind of like calling a tissue a Kleenex)
The soda/pop map was interesting. It shows the only county in Iowa where the term soda predominates as Johnson, which is where Iowa City and the University if Iowa are located. In addition to the 20k+ students, many from all over the country, the UI is also the largest employer. Many, many professionals (faculty, doctors, researchers, administrators) who work at the U are from other parts of the country. This map suggests to me that many of these people are from the Soda regions of the country!
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coke/soda/pop
