A soda by any other name…
…would taste as sweet. The survey that demonstrates this is not especially scientific, but it’s fun.
Growing up in New York, the operative word for carbonated beverages was “soda.” Later I learned that in the midwest “pop” was much preferred. I’ve never really heard the survey’s generic “Coke” of the south.
But in New England it’s long been “tonic.” The survey bore this out, with “tonic” being one of the most popular “other” responses. It seems to be used in a fairly circumscribed area of New England: the north. In other words, Red Sox as opposed to Yankee territory.
Whatever you call it, I don’t drink any of it except for club soda. But of course, you already knew that.
[Hat tip: Maetenloch at Ace of Spades.]
Yep, and look at that anomalous blob of soda people around St. Louis. How very odd.
Being a sturdy midwesterner who says “pop”, I find it a little irritating that TV advertisments almost always say “soda”. Coastal cultural imperialism, sez I. 🙂
I don’t recall having heard “tonic” in Maine, and the survey data for Maine has extremely low numbers for “other”, compared to Mass.
Also, another funny regionalism is that we don’t drive slower than traffic in the left lane up here. That lane is for passing.
Growing up in the Midwest, I always heard my family call sodas, pops, etc., “soft drinks.” My relatives in Kentucky often asked for “Co-Cola.”
As a young Bay Stater, the only person whom I have ever heard call “soda” “tonic” is my grandmother, who is from Newton, MA.
Everyone else I know calls it “soda.”
The “tonic” or “other” map appears to be Eastern Mass- inside 495 say- maybe NH or parts of Maine. Even in Massachsetts, “other” is a minority, with “soda” acccounting for ~70% of the replies in the tonic state.
Another regional discussion has to do with the foot long sandwiches. Grinders versus subs versus hoagies versus po’ boyts et al. I grew up calling them grinders.
I grew up on soda, considering “tonic” an affectation of the mass of people who lived in the massively crowded portion of Mass. Every time I went to the massively crowded portion of Mass, I was impressed with how crowded the place was. Very little breathing space.
http://popvssoda.com/stats/ALL.html
Growing up in New Mexico, no matter the brand of the drink, it was always “let’s go get a Coke.”
Huh … I can’t speak with any academic authority on the topic, but I do recall people in this area of the “Midwest” often using the term “soda pop” to describe the fruit flavored carbonated drinks kids like.
This probably was not so much some kind of conscious melding of two equivalent terms, as intended to convey the idea of a carbonated base and a flavor. At least that’s the way I took it.
Soda was what adults used in their highballs, or whatever it was they drank using Scotch or Canadian, or Bourbon.
I just asked my secretary if she recalled the term and she said yes, but that it was an old fashioned term used by older people when she was a kid.
Well, no use getting all het up over nothing. I think I’ll set a spell on the back stoop and enjoy the day. Maybe even have a …
In many places in the south, it’s really cokecola one word, no spaces, and said fast.
In my portion of Wisconsin near the Twin Cities, Pop and Soda seem to be in perpetual war with each other. Some people split the difference and just use “Soda Pop”.
Here in North Texas, we usually say “soft drink,” although “Coke” as a generic term is still relatively common. My next door neighbor goes a little further, asking if I “would like a Coke or something.” From a marketing standpoint, I find it pretty impressive that Coca-Cola largely managed to position itself as the standard descriptive form for a carbonated beverage. Sort of like “Mom, baseball, apple pie and Coca-Cola”!
I’ve never really thought about this before, but why “soft” drink? To indicate no bourbon was involved?
look at that anomalous blob of soda people around St. Louis
I grew up just North of that “anomalous blob” and we always called it “pop”. My first job after college was in St. Louis, and everyone said “soda”. It’s interesting how the language differed in such a short distance.
Re “Coke” becoming synonymous with “soda” or “pop”:
when asking for a facial tissue, how many people ask for a “Kleenex”? If so, is it a regional thing?
I grew up in central Georgia where it was cocola. And you still find the occasional purist who is typically someone’s ninety year old granny who will only drink it in the little six ounce glass bottles.
For a special treat for kids it was getting your daddy to poke a small hole in the bottle cap with his pocket knife and drink it through that without opening it. Also there were plenty of folks back in the day that would pour a bag of salted peanuts into the coke for an odd but not untasty treat.
(went to college in Massachusetts . . . )
It’s spelled “tonic”, but it’s often pronounced “tawwnic”.
In many areas of the south, there is no contradiction is asking if there is a ‘coke’ machine nearby because you’d like a pepsi (or sprite or dr pepper or any other carbonated soft drink).
New York State is divided down the middle, more or less along the line where Interstate 81 bisects the state, as to “soda” (east) v. “pop” (west). (Also, “pop” should be pronounced “paahnp”, with the n half-swallowed.)
Another division is “aunt” pronounced to rhyme with “want” in New England, vs. “aunt” pronounced as if spelled “ant” elsewhere. My children have aunts from both places and have learned to seamlessly adjust their pronunciation, depending which family they’re visiting.
Stumbley is correct. Here in New Mexico, it is the generic “coke”.
Here it is entirely unremarkable to hear an exchange like:
“Gimme a coke.”
“What kind?”
“Mountain Dew.”
1. Does anybody remember Green River?
2. I used to drink Coke and Pepsi interchangeably, but then Pepsi decided to go all Obama and changed their logo to “Obamacola.” No more Pepsi for me, ever.
It was always “soft drink” in my part of Pennsylvania (southeastern “flyover country” between Philly and Harrisburg).
FWIW, I also went to college in Massachusetts and never heard the stuff in soft drink bottles referred to as “tonic.” Now the Red Sawx, that was another story.
For me, it is always “soda pop.”
I lived in the Boston area for about 20 years and never once heard tonic instead of soda. I would on occasion come across frappe (for milkshake) on a menu, but even that seemed to be an affectation for tourist purposes.
Gotta say though, when I saw the title for this post, all I could think of was Mangled Baby Ducks. That’s right, Mangled Baby Ducks. Imagine a … soda so delicious we’d dare call it Mangled Baby Ducks. (hat tip, Dan Aykroyd?)
“Also there were plenty of folks back in the day that would pour a bag of salted peanuts into the coke for an odd but not untasty treat.”
I used to do that myself, Steve. It’s been a very long time since I’ve done it (I’m 57 now) but I remember it was a very tasty treat. The salt would cause the Coke to fizz pretty good, kind of like the head on a good beer. However, the practice wasn’t limited to just Coke, It would work just as well in a Pepsi, RC Cola or Check Cola. Unfortunately, when I was that young it was a rare day when I could get a bag of peanuts and a Coke at the same time.
I’m from the South (that is, Florida), and everyone I know and knew growing up said “Coke.” I still remember talking to my cousin from Washington state, and hearing her say “pop.” I thought it was hilarious, like she was from the 1950’s or something. She, of course, thought “Coke” was hilarious too – “It’s not Coke, it’s Mountain Dew.”
I spent most of my pre-teen childhood in California, however, and even there I can’t remember anyone saying anything other than “Coke.”
re: gcotharn – I’ve always said “Kleenex.”
I was born in Ohio, and during my childhood I lived briefly in western New York and western Pennsylvania. All of those places are solid “pop” territory.
My family moved to southeastern Pennsylvania when I was 11. I don’t remember calling it anything other than “soda”. Maybe I might have called it “soda pop”, but I don’t think I ever called it “pop”.
I thought the fact that both of my parents came from Maryland might have been a factor, but it turns out that they came from a “coke” part of MD. So it’s a mystery.
North Carolina looks like a battleground state. If the Civil War ever breaks out again, it’ll probably start there.
“”North Carolina looks like a battleground state. If the Civil War ever breaks out again, it’ll probably start there.””
rickl
Yea we’ve almost lost NC as a southern state. I figure it’s Maryland and DC yankees escaping the ridiculous taxes they themselves caused.
The only thing halting the slide is the God fearing folks in the mountain areas where you might see the occasional kid walking down the road with a 22 rifle and possum on his shoulder and no shoes on.