Generic names for soft drinks map

[PamelaJaye]

http://www.popvssoda.com/countystats/total-county.html

saw this, thought of you

the extent of my interest in maps is as follows

When I was little, my mother got me a map of the US, with magnetic states. that's how I know where the states are. I had a puzzle of the states too, but I didn't like it.
When I move to a new state (both times - though one was a commonwealth. technically, I've only lived in one state) I have to get a map.
Don't bother giving me directions, I'm better with a map. (give me directions and I might get there but I'll never get home)
Used to have a map of the world hanging on the wall in the hallway. even with google maps, I miss it. Usually when playing Jeopardy.)

On the other hand - I *am* interested in regionalisms.

[skullturfq]

I can say without exaggeration that this pop vs soda map is one of my favorite maps of all time. I too am fascinated by regionalisms.

I was born and raised in Canada (lived in British Columbia and Ontario since the age of 5) but in August 2010, I moved to New Castle County, Delaware. Soon after moving, I gave in to the pressure and sacrificed a little bit of my identity by referring to all soft drinks as "soda" (despite this little voice inside me saying that "soda" is only the clear non-sweet carbonated stuff). I also changed from saying "washroom" to "restroom" when I'm in a bar or restaurant.

Even though the northern part of Delaware is firmly in soda-land along with NJ, eastern PA, etc., I notice that we together with the Baltimore-DC area appear to be the southernmost reaches of soda-land, which is sort of consistent with us being the southernmost part of the North. And I notice there appear to be some Maryland counties on the Delmarva peninsula that do the Southern thing of referring to all soft drinks as "coke". It's also interesting how confused Virginia and North Carolina appear to be.

Here's another map of regional differences in US English that's fascinating to me. This map depicts whether people say "cot" and "caught" the same or differently.

http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/maps/Map1.html

Broadly speaking, this appears to be a west vs east thing. But there are two big regions of cot-caught merging in the eastern half of the country -- one around WV / western PA / eastern KY, and one in northern New England.

One tidbit that's interesting to me is that the states of Pennsylvania and Kentucky (sorry, the Commonwealths of Pennsylvania and Kentucky) each appear to be rather divided in a west-east manner, both on the issue of pop vs soda, and on the issue of cot vs caught.

[PamelaJaye]

I've taken the accent test and they pegged me as - I forget precisely, definitely New England and possibly Boston, despite years of testing by everyone I meet who hears where I'm from and insists I recite "park your car in Harvard Yard" (I hear there *is* one parking space). One person thought I sounded "a little" Bostonian. The rest don't see it (and neither do I). My mother was once asked by a stranger, "We know *you* are from Boston; where is your husband from?" (My father's from Boston, my mother's from Newton.) My ex-husband was from west of Worcester but he definitely had the accent, as does my cousin from Newton and friend from Braintree.

I still don't know what it's called where you are from. In Boston, we called it tonic.
The problem is... the internet? Even in the real world, too many people have no idea what you are talking about, so you have to change. I'm still fighting the pocketbook/purse war. Apparently some think pocketbook is a wallet.
And there is some strange name for convenience stores in PA. Starts with a W.

I feel a trip to wikipedia (or at least google) coming on...

EDIT: Oops. Took the test. Had not seen the map before.

[skullturfq]

In Canada, I called soft drinks "pop".

In Delaware, and eastern PA and southern NJ, we have a chain of convenience stores called "Wawa". Is that what you were thinking of? We can buy hoagies there (as opposed to subs, heroes, or grinders).

[Momma Snider]

My favorite thing about the soda map is seeing all those little tiny counties in the eastern half of the country. Does anyone know why that would be?