Why do people in KC call highway names weirdly?

[brewcrew1000]

I grew up in Milwaukee and was use to saying Soda but when i went to college in Minnesota I got use to saying Pop and still say pop

[Missouri Geographer]

I am glad this is a topic because it bothers me. I did a semester long research project on the history of the highway and interstate system in Missouri and tried to find some background on why the difference in how the highways are referred to. I couldn't find a definitive answer.

It seems a rough geographical representation of who says 40 Highway is the KC television market. Generally residents in the rest of the state (and the U.S) say Highway first then the number when using those specific terms together (of course there are exceptions, but those are exceptions not the rule). In fact in searching number first, highway second...the large majority of results are from KC.

I've lived in KC for 2 years and, unfortunately, find myself saying it occasionally.

And for thosecwho keep saying why does it matter...it doesn't, but can't we have a discussion about it?

[GhettoKC]

Originally Posted by OneKC

Its pop, not soda.

Yup.

[TabulaRasa]

Originally Posted by brewcrew1000

I grew up in Milwaukee and was use to saying Soda but when i went to college in Minnesota I got use to saying Pop and still say pop

That's funny...I grew up in northern IL where it's pop, and where I went to college in MN, they all said "soda." With a very pronounced "o," of course.

[Made_it_To_the_Metroplex]

Kind of related (in a different place), but some (though not nearly all) state highways in S. Carolina are named things like "Road 68". I lived briefly in KC in the 80's and that kind of reminded me of the topc of this thread.

Cheers!

[brewcrew1000]

When I first moved here, i thought saying 40 Highway was kind of weird but i think it's more of a Missouri thing then Kansas thing.

[aragx6]

^I don't think its a Missouri or Kansas thing, I think it's a Metro KC thing. I've never heard it anywhere else in MO.

[Okey Dokie]

In 1968 when I was 14 our family moved from the Chicago suburbs to KC. The realtor who drove us around showing us houses kept referring to "50 Highway" which at the time I thought was very odd. Of course, 42 years later "(whatever) Highway" is embedded in me.

Here's one - why in Kansas do they refer to state highways as "K-whatever" - K-10, K-7, K-68, but in Missouri it's not "M-1" or "M-350"??

I actually took a Linguistics class at KU where we studied regional dialect differences. Very interesting subject.

[denverian]

Originally Posted by Okey Dokie

In 1968 when I was 14 our family moved from the Chicago suburbs to KC. The realtor who drove us around showing us houses kept referring to "50 Highway" which at the time I thought was very odd. Of course, 42 years later "(whatever) Highway" is embedded in me.

Here's one - why in Kansas do they refer to state highways as "K-whatever" - K-10, K-7, K-68, but in Missouri it's not "M-1" or "M-350"??

I actually took a Linguistics class at KU where we studied regional dialect differences. Very interesting subject.

I think that's because every state labels state roads differently. In California, state roads are labeled "SR" and the number, which stands for state road. So I lived near SR55, but nobody ever called it SR55, they called it "the 55 freeway". So in the L.A. area, there is no distinction between state roads and Interstates. They all look the same and interconnect, so you just say, "Take the 55 north to the 91 west, then hop on the 405 north". 55 and 91 being state roads, 405 being an Interstate. But no on every calls it "I-405, or I-5, or I-10". Just the 405, the 5, the 10, etc. Someone else explained the reasoning for the use of "the" in front of the number in L.A.

Also, using the term "freeway" over highway and Interstate seems to be a western thing, from what I can tell. Here in Denver, it seems to be where the Freeway line is. Half the people call them freeways, half highways, so either way you don't sound odd. Most traffic reports call them freeways. With so many SoCal transplants here, you also hear people referring to them as "the 70, the 25, the 225", etc. from time to time. I'm guilty of it after spending so much time in California.