Soda or Pop? Or both?

[photonrider]

Another one of those things were your location depends...

Definitely. So I couldn't really vote truthfully, Slash, since I'm changing locations constantly. Sometimes I'm in the midst of a bunch of younger folk - I'll refer to carbonated drinks as 'Pop'. If I'm having a whiskey and soda, then that particular fizzy stuff I put into it will be called 'Soda'. I won't have a Gin and pop - but most certainly like a Gin and Tonic (Tonic also being a carbonated and sweetened non-alcoholic liquid.)
Talking to older people I'd use the name of the drink or say 'soft drink' or 'aerated water.'

Couple of evenings ago I dropped in at a buddy's place - he goes over to the fridge and comes back with a can: "Have a beverage?" he says, handing me a can of Sprite.

I thought it was beer.

I could have popped him, that soda-can of a blunt.

 

[partyboy690]

Fizzy drink here in Ireland, although you will hear a lot of older people refer to it as a mineral. I don't know why either haha

 

[photonrider]

Because originally any of that fizzy stuff was called 'mineral water'.

Then they added sugar, flavours and food colouring.

Later on . . . caffiene

 

[Crash]

I call it soda.

Although, once in a while, especially if around people who call it "pop", I will let "pop" slip out of my mouth.

 

[Pupik]

My family's always said "soda", so has my wife's family. So the kids will probably say "soda".

Still, having been in The South a lot, I don't always hear "Coke" immediately...at least as much as the county graph implies. Probably because Sweet Tea is also in full effect (and very much the default soft drink of choice in Georgia, even though Coke rules Atlanta). It wasn't until I'd been to Middle America that I heard lots of people say "pop", but I never heard but a few people say it on the east coast, where I'd spent nearly all my life. It always sounded a little old-timey to me.

Not to blow the doors completely off this thread, but here's an example of a survey performed on many other linguistic oddities around the United States.

 

[Slash]

That's an awesome site, thanks for sharing.

 

[kikie]

I was just watching The Middle. Axl, pretending to be choking on chips, said to his tv sister, Sue, to get him 'pop'.

 

[photonrider]

Well, Slash, as usual - now that you had me intrigued I had to go do more research - and here is what I found out:

James William Black of Berwick, Nova Scotia, invented a drink called 'Ice Cream Soda', patent issued on July 5, 1886, Pat: CA24,012. The ingredients were whipped egg whites, sugar, water, lime juice, lemons, tartaric acid, flavouring extract, and (most importantly to us in the discussion) bicarbonate of soda.

I think we found the 'soda' culprit. Eh?

 

[Slash]

Well, Slash, as usual - now that you had me intrigued I had to go do more research - and here is what I found out:

James William Black of Berwick, Nova Scotia, invented a drink called 'Ice Cream Soda', patent issued on July 5, 1886, Pat: CA24,012. The ingredients were whipped egg whites, sugar, water, lime juice, lemons, tartaric acid, flavouring extract, and (most importantly to us in the discussion) bicarbonate of soda.

I think we found the 'soda' culprit. Eh?

Seems likely


As usual eh?

 

[Pupik]

Bump: How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk

Take the quiz, and see where it puts you on the map. It's shown some interesting results for folks who have English as a second language...

 

[TB]

@Pupik - your map did pretty well for me. 👍

 

[Joey D]

That's pretty accurate.

My top two cities were Detroit and Grand Rapids, which is convenient since I grew up in the Detroit area and now live in Grand Rapids.

 

[TB]

I forgot to mention that my "least similars" were Birmingham and Montgomery Alabama. Ironic, given that I was born in Columbus, Georgia, a whole 90 miles away.

 

[Wiegert]

A friend showed me that quiz last month thinking it would be funny to see what results someone outside the US would get. Turned out we both got Honolulu (along with the majority of his other friends, according to him). Plus I got Yonkers and New Jersey. Non of which I have any vernacular knowledge of.

tl;dr, I learned that drive thru liquor stores are a thing.

 

[TheCracker]

Bump: How Y’all, Youse and You Guys Talk

Take the quiz, and see where it puts you on the map. It's shown some interesting results for folks who have English as a second language...

San Francisco - Grand Rapids - Philadelphia

Grew up 3,547 miles away.

 

[Pupik]

Plus I got Yonkers and New Jersey. Non of which I have any vernacular knowledge of.

tl;dr, I learned that drive thru liquor store are a thing.

Heh, it's usually a rural thing. But I've never heard of a precise word for it (one of those "ask 7 people, get 7 different answers" things).

I was placed up in the Yonkers/NJ area, which is correct, since my parents are from there.

Also, the questions vary somewhat.

 

[SVT Cobra GT]

I just call it what it's called. 'Coke', 'Pepsi', 'Tango' etc.

 

[Slash]

Mine was spot on, it gave me the names of 2 large cities I'm smack dab in the middle of, about 50 miles apart. Awesome. I can't believe how accurate that was.

 

[Sage Ages]

Apparently, I'm from Boston.....

Yep. It's accurate. That looks a lot like Boston....

 

[Cale]

Mine was spot on, it gave me the names of 2 large cities I'm smack dab in the middle of, about 50 miles apart. Awesome. I can't believe how accurate that was.

View attachment 97644

My looks like this.

 

[Slash]

My looks like this.

Not surprising, you live (or did) not farther than maybe 20 minutes from me anyways

 

[Crash]

Pretty good; the NY Times quiz placed me from (in order) Honolulu, Seattle and Tacoma. Honolulu is a little weird, but Seattle and Tacoma makes sense; they are 30 miles away from each other and I grew up in Seattle.

I've taken a few other quizzes similar to this (I think those may have been based on the same research as well), and they all generally place me to be from the Pacific Northwest.

 

[Driving Park]

I got New York City, Jersey City, and Yonkers. Surprising considering I don't think I talk like a New Yorker at all and I've inherited accent features from Minnesotans, Chicagoans and generic accentless northern Virginians. Guess I talk more like a New Yorker than I thought?

Anyway, "soda". To me, "pop" is a sound something (e.g. a soda) makes or short for "popular"...not a soft drink. I don't drink soda though, so it's not usually an issue.

 

[Sage Ages]

Surprising considering I don't think I talk like a New Yorker at all and I've inherited accent features from Minnesotans, Chicagoans and generic accentless northern Virginians. Guess I talk more like a New Yorker than I thought?

Isn't Chicago kinda ghetto in some parts? That might explain JC and NYC.

 

[Grand Prix]

My most similar cities were Seattle, Minneapolis / Saint Paul, and Buffalo, NY.

 

[kikie]

Your nation has very large and elaborated sidewalks:

(Revolution does not always mean cars...)

The answer.

It's "pop"!

Look at the bilboard on the photo.

 

[SkylineObsession]

We only say fizzy drink.

Pop sounds seriously weird. Thats what a lot of us call our grandfathers.

And soda not much better. :/

 

[TB]

We only say fizzy drink.

Pop sounds seriously weird.

And to us USians, fizzy drink sounds weird. Clearly it's a regional preference, even in the same country.

 

[DG_Silva]

I got New York, Yonkers and Jersey City. Basically, what seems to pass for the purer version of English, or closest to UK English.

 

[Joel]

Mine gave me Boston.

Makes sense as the Maritimes accent is similar in some ways to the Boston accent. Apparently the word "rotary" as a roundabout was the key word. There's one in Halifax called the Armdale rotary and I've always called them a rotary since.