Friday, March 02, 2012

Fizzy logic

Distribution of "pop," "soda," and "coke" usage, as determined by an analysis of tweets:

Yellow dots indicate “pop,” red dots indicate “Coke,” and blue dots indicate “soda.”

Zoom out and wonder along with me why Canadians use the term most prevalent in the US southeast.

Bigger and even more more interactive map here.

Bigger static maps, showing results from different workers using different methodologies, here.

More info, and topics, starting at Jennifer Schuessler's fine post. Wherein, concerning some matters discussed, this blogger needs educated. But it's all hella cool!

6 comments:

Unle Ebeneezer said...

Very interesting. When I first moved to Boston (3rd grade) I was baffled when people would ask if I wanted a "tonic." I have never heard that outside of New England.

If you didn't catch it, check out the Ben Zimmer diavlogs on BHTV. He traces some word origins and dispersions etc.

bjkeefe said...

Has BZ been on recently? I think I caught all of them up through, say, a year ago. Good stuff.

On the generic beverage name, I found it most unsettling down in Florida, where an orange Nehi was called a coke, and everyone except me knew exactly what was meant.

Substance McGravitas said...

I don't buy the "coke" for Canada thing, unless in the "no Coke, PEPSI" sense. I've never heard it used, in the west at least (and most of our media is from the centre of the country).

bjkeefe said...

Thanks for weighing in, SM. It's a limited data set, for sure. Could be all vacationers, or something like that. (Draft dodgers.)

Which word do you use?

bjkeefe said...

@UE: Realized I forgot to respond to "tonic." I do remember that, from some of the people from my grandparents' generation, who lived in Massachusetts.

M. Bouffant said...

Funny, I either say "I want something to drink," or, "I want a [brand name]."

Do they still call it "dope" down South?

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