Pop, soda, or coke? With a map...

[Jeslek]

Green areas order pop, red areas call it Coke, and the blue areas ask for soda.

SOURCE: http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/09/12/pop.vs.soda.ap/index.html

JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) -- In the South it's called Coke, even when it's Pepsi. Many in Boston say tonic. A precious few even order a fizzy drink.

But the debate between those soft drink synonyms is a linguistic undercard in the nation's carbonated war of words. The real battle: pop vs. soda.

Order a soda in Michigan or Minnesota and you're clearly an outsider. Ask for pop in New York City and you risk being ridiculed.

 

[Jeslek]

I call it pop... makes more sense for me

 

[MitchSchaft]

I'm from the South and we do call it coke. Except for my wife. She was born/raised in Memphis and calls it soda.

 

[Gonz]

Pepsi is the pop for me

 

[MitchSchaft]

Soda makes more sence to me.

 

[Jeslek]

Hm, from a linguistic standpoint I'd have to agree, but the word pop is just too common here.

 

[samcurry]

Yes but go anywhere in the world and say "gimme a DEW" and you always get the same thing....

 

[Scanty]

Is this just for Americans, then? We don't call it any of them.

 

[Jeslek]

Is this just for Americans, then? We don't call it any of them.

Not just for Americans... Everyone, but I guess its mostly for North America since the rest of the world has their own languages. What do you say? I recall saying soda in Malaysia and they understood it just fine.

 

[Scanty]

Okay, but I don't live in Malaysia! We don't really have a generic term for fizzy drinks. In the uk, we just say the name of the drink that we're gonna get, I suppose.

 

[Jeslek]

Okay, but I don't live in Malaysia! We don't really have a generic term for fizzy drinks. In the uk, we just say the name of the drink that we're gonna get, I suppose.

I know My friends usually ask Can I grab a pop? because they don't always know what I have in the fridge. A sort of collective term I suppose.

 

[PT]

Yes but go anywhere in the world and say "gimme a DEW" and you always get the same thing....

 

[Luis G]

You can come here and ask for a soda or "refresco"

 

[fury]

I call it whatever it is, and I don't call Coke Coke, I call Coke Crap.

 

[samcurry]

there goes our sponsership....down the drain.

 

[Gonz]

where's CA, AZ, NV, ID, OR, WA, NM, CO & UT on that map?

 

[MitchSchaft]

CA is not apart of our Union, man.

 

[AlladinSane]

"Refrigerante". If you want specifically a Coke, ask for a Coca-Cola or simply Coca. Pepsi is fine...

 

[Bink]

It's generally called soft-drink here. Don't ask me why, we're not to good at creating names that make sense in Australia

 

[MuFu]

We don't call them any of those either. Oh, apart from really old people or (like your grandparents, for example) or people who are socially spacktardious might ask you if you want some "fizzy pop" or something else similarly embarassing.

Coke is Coke, of course. "Having a pop" is taking a swing at someone (hehe) and "soda" is only ever really used in the context of soda water or cream/ice cream soda.