My mother’s parent emigrated from Southeast Europe, along with their oldest daughter. My grandfather and aunt learned to speak English, but my grandmother never did, at least not well enough to hold a conversation. My aunts and uncle spoke their parent’s language a little, the older ones better than the younger. In my generation and younger, almost everyone speaks only English. I think that is mostly because there are fewer and fewer options for speaking the old language as time goes on. Everyone in Germany since WWII learned English in grade school, but only those that use it later in life retain it.
Now, which is it, pop or soda?
Soda.
I don’t remember if they say in Minnesota or not but I do remember in some area’s do you want a poke meaning a bag or sack.
In my neck of the woods, it’s soda.
In some parts of New England, it’s “tonic”, and in some parts of the South, every carbonated beverage is “Coke”.
Many years ago I knew a woman who came from the Midwest, and she drank “pawp”, which was her pronunciation of “pop”.
4 Likes
I don’t know if they still do it but I remember being in or close to NYC and stopped at a coffee shop I ordered coffee with my meal the waitress asked if I wanted regular coffee I said yes (thinking regular or decaf) when she brought it to me it had cream in it I drink my coffee black I asked why the cream she told me that is what they call regular in that part of the country.
I think that sounds about right. More than likely, she also added sugar, along with the cream. I don’t use sweetener in my coffee, but I think that a lot of people do, and to them "regular " coffee would probably contain both cream and sugar.
But, I think we need to bring this back to cars, a.s.a.p.!
The Midwestern woman whom I knew years ago, and who drank “pawp”, drove a '66 Impala.
2 Likes
In MN it is pop, in FL soda.
Once ordered a soda in MN, and was asked what kind of ice cream I wanted. Soda pop for me, MN born. Back to car stuff, scandinavian guy wanted to make sure he was getting on the right bus for Duluth. Does dis bus go to Dulut? No said the bus driver, it goes beep beep like all the other buses.
Pawp is also Western PA. When my dad was young, they referred to Coke as dope. I think that was prevalent all over the south.
1 Like
It’s interesting and fun to note the distinctive differences in accent, idioms, and vocabulary around the country. It’s often indicative of cultural differences. Even more fascinating are the major differences in English around the world.
In several cross country driving trips in years past it was equally interesting to note what type of vehicles, what makes and models, and what colors predominated in different areas. Again, the typical vehicles tended to go along with local culture which is understandably driven primarily by the needs of climate, terrain, local economy, etc.
2 Likes
In Florida seems coke is more popular than the beverage.
3 Likes
That’s because the early formula had cocain (coke) in it, thus Coke.
1 Like
For those of you who don’t know coke cola was invented in Georgia’ by a pharmacist trying to make a better pain killer than morphine.
Actually, he added cocaine extract as an energy booster, and the early ads for Coca-Cola all sang the praises of it for giving people more energy.
Here is an interesting factoid:
While coca leaf flavoring is still used as an ingredient in Coca-Cola, all of the cocaine is extracted before the coca leaf flavoring is sold to the Coca-Cola company. Only one company–the Stepan Chemical Company, of Maywood, NJ–is legally allowed to import coca leaves from South America. They extract the “drug” from the coca leaves and sell it to pharmaceutical companies, and the remaining flavoring is sold to the Coca-Cola company.
In 2003, Stepan imported 175,000 kilograms of coca leaves for Coca-Cola. They refer to the coca leaf extract simply as “Merchandise No. 5.” And, as you might guess, that factory is VERY heavily guarded.
1 Like
I’ll take your word for it. I don’t know where my Coca Cola history book is. I do believe he drove a black Ford though down in Georgia.
I’m not sure about that factoid, but we should definitely try to keep on-track with automotive-related stuff!
And–since I don’t post information unless I know it to be factual–you can take my word for that info about Pharmacist Pemberton, who originally concocted the stuff.
My favorite dialect story happened in the foothills of North Carolina. I spotted a roadside pickup, selling sweet corn. When I asked what kinds did he have, he said he had “yowler” and “bah”. When I slowly understood that he meant “yellow” or bi-color, I froze. My Mother was an English teacher. I didn’t want to offend the guy by carefully saying “yellow”, but I also could not bring myself to say “yowler”. Ver uncomfortably, I mumbled something, got my corn and left. It was only when I was a mile down the road did I realize that I had bought “yowler” when I intended to buy “bah”!
1 Like
This is a fun discussion, but can we get back to cars, please? Thanks.
Well I did turn it to black Fords but then then “they” continued to talk about the pharmacist and buying sweet corn. And not to ruffle the feathers of a guy with impeccable sources, but I just made the whole black Ford thing up to try and get it back on track. Everybody down there drove Fords though back then, or so my Grandpa said.
I wasn’t coming after you, @bing. Or anybody, really.