Pop versus Soda

Via Gene Expression, I came across this map of the US coded as to the most popular name for "pop"ular drinks. Perhaps I betray my interests in aesthetics, or simply demonstrate my shallow-ness but my first thought was what an appealing image it was:

Ain't it pretty?

Comments

[Brian]

Wow, so money and resources were spent researching this information. :-)

I'm not surprised to learn that my eastern NY is overwhelmingly 'soda' country.

[John]

I remember when I was a kid (12, 13) and there was a big baseball tournament in our area (suburbs of Albany). All us local kids used to laugh at the the Buffalo kids for calling it "pop". I was working concessions and began shouting into a microphone, "get your ice cold pop", and then I would laugh up uproariously as if this was a great joke.

Of course, none of those words strikes me as being as ridiculous as "minerals".

[razib]

no money. people just sent in their info via the web, and the info has been building up....

[John]

I couldn't resist this and wrote more about it this morning.

[Frank McGahon]

John:
It's true!, When I think about "minerals", it doesn't make any sense, but you are quite correct, that is the default Irish word.

[Abiola Lapite]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

"Minerals" is also the normal term used in Nigeria ...

I'm guessing this is one of those Yankee vs. latter-British-Empire things. Perhaps some Aussies and South Africans could enlighten us further on this subject.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (MingW32) - GPGshell v3.10
Comment: My Public Key is at the following URL:
Comment: http://www.alapite.net/pgp/AbiolaLapite.txt

iD8DBQFAszr3OgWD1ZKzuwkRAlq4AJ9jyXigV5cusD0cAupqlLFlChMvSwCaAzms
97ll18svRUrMNUv5yDuqCjg=
=y9+a
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[John]

Do people in Britain call them minerals? I didn't think so, but sounds reasonable if Nigerians do too.

[Frank McGahon]

I don't associate "minerals" with Britain but that could still be consistent with the British Empire theory: As imperial power, (all of*) Britain wasn't part of the empire in the same way as, say, Australia, South Africa or Nigeria.

*Some areas, particularly North England and Scotland share usages with Ireland but not with Southern England (such as the word "shite")

[Eddie Harrington]

Frank: You would not believe the dilemma such names can cause. Being from NY I had called soda/pop/coke "soda" my entire life, though I had met a few foilks west of the mighty Mississippi that called it "pop." Then I went on active duty in Mississippi and went to a real local place. I sat down ordered a burger and she asked me whether I wanted anything to drink, to which I replied, "I'll have a coke." She looked at me and said, "What kind of Coke?" Puzzled, I thought for a second and said, "a regular coke." This of course confused the NASCAR loving waitress even more and we went back and forth a few more times before I realized that even a 7-Up or Pepsi is a form of "coke." She didn't get the humor when I asked her if Pepsi's lawyers knew about this.

[Frank McGahon]

There's a really corny Northern Ireland joke I first heard on a bus to Old Trafford to see Manchester United:

Guy (from Northern Ireland obviously) goes into a bar in New York and asks for whiskey. Barman asks if he'd like a soda with that, Guy says, thanks but no, he's not hungry.

["soda" in Northern Ireland is soda bread, a major component of the heart-stopping Ulster Fry breakfast]

[alan]

In my experience, we Aussies tend to use the term "soft drinks" largely as a generic for non-alcoholic carbonated drinks. although it sounds like it might also include things like fruit juices, these often get referred to separately. I think this is fairly universal usage within OZ. but I'm from Brisbane in Queensland. Perhaps some other Aussies have a different opinion.

[Jeremy]

It's "soft drinks" or sometimes just "drinks" in New South Wales, Australia, and in New Zealand, also sometimes "fizzy drinks", especially when talking to kids.