Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Inter-regional Vocabulary - It's Complicated.
I recently read this post on Dead Class Pets, and it brought back a rather embarrassing moment for me...
I was born here in Utah, but grew up pretty much all over the place. By the time I was 18 I had moved twenty times. Because of this, I adapt really easily to change, (in fact thrive on it), and I've experienced many different sub-cultures within our dear United States.
When I was 20, I was living back here in Utah for a spell and working at a telecom company. One day I was sitting in my cubicle entering addresses into a database, when a man who was in town for a conference popped his head over the wall of the cube and said, "Excuse me, can you tell me where I can get a pop?"
I just stared at him blankly. I knew I should know what he was talking about, but it was like he had spoken in a strange dialect which needed deciphering before I could respond. I think my mouth was hanging open, and I began to panic as more time passed in brain-freeze mode.
The man looked at me for a minute, and finally realized that I was having trouble understanding English. He raised his eyebrows and said, "I think you call it soda here?"
And then it all made sense. He wanted a Coke from the SODA machine!! I felt like such a dumb hick. My face filled with the red-hot blood of humiliation as I pointed to the hallway behind him and said, "It's the first door on the right." Also happened to be the only door on the right, but oh well, I was on a roll.
I decided after that incident that if I could no longer translate vocabulary from one region's traditions to another, then I'd been in one place too long. So we moved to Washington, where soda is called pop, and I'm proud to say that I can now interchange both words without any spasms of stupid fogging my brain.
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"Pop" is where it is, BABY!! :)
ReplyDeleteAs long as it's not "Sod-y Pop" we're all good. I just say Coke to keep things safe.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what Washington you moved to, cause we call it soda here too. ;)
ReplyDeleteI'm a pop girl.
ReplyDeleteWhat I really don't get? the people who use "coke" generically for ALL soda.
Yes, Gigi. I'm with ya. It's so confusing when someone asks for a coke when they mean Dr. Pepper or root beer or something... :)
ReplyDeleteMmmm, Dr. Pepper...now I'm craving one! I must admit to using "Coke" more than soda, and my Iowa relatives want a pop.
ReplyDeleteThe one those Iowans used to throw at us was to call the couch the divan, and lunch was supper (or dinner?)....WTH??
I thought "supper" was just an old people word, I had no idea it was also used regionally. I'll stop teasing my grandpa now.
ReplyDeleteI can always tell the folks that weren't raised around here, because I've never heard a local call it anything except for "pop." Except for our family. My mom grew up in the midwest, so we always thought it was "paahp."
ReplyDeleteOoo - I immediately thought of a PAP smear when you wrote that, and now I'm not thirsty in the least!! :)
ReplyDeleteHere is SC it's the generic "coke" with a little c. I don't think it's as complicated as people make it. It's no different than saying you want a "soda" or a "pop." Neither of those tell you which brand or flavor either. We specify when we're ordering.
ReplyDeleteGood night!
Your poor grandpa can come eat supper at my house. We sup here. And from time to time, we call lunch, "dinner."
Wild living, I tell you.
SC was the first to secede from the union, so you should expect a little foolishness I guess.
Being from Chicago I'm supposed to call it pop but I just can't. It's soda to me.
ReplyDeleteI blame my father.
I still use "pop" even though I am in the land of "soda."
ReplyDeleteThat's the kind of rebel I am.
There is soda, for all soda. and there is "bubbler," which is what we call a drinking fountain here. We also have cash machines tyme machines (as in take your money everywhere) and you should've seen the looks we got when we were in D.C. and asked for a "tyme machine."
ReplyDeleteI grew up saying soda but since being married and living in Michigan, I converted to saying "pop" -- now I don't think I'll ever go back!
ReplyDeleteNow that we live in Texas, I notice other regional dialects .... like saying "crown" for "crayon"--I was scratching my head for a long time over that one ;)
Once in my younger days I worked as a paralegal for a big construction company. My first day there one of the secretaries handed me a metal bolt and said "I need you go to go find a screw that will fit this bolt. You can fin out out there." She pointed to the construction yard. So .... I went out into the yard, with all the construction guys (the kind who yell at women as they pass buy a construction site." I said "I need a screw ...." and of course they all about fell on the floor laughing. Hated that job.
ReplyDeleteWTF is soda? Hahaha! I love dialects! n Whatnawt (Pittsburghese, baby!)
ReplyDeleteI must say, it is refreshing to hear how open minded you are about different terminology for carbonated beverages (is that the "official" name?). I grew up in the midwest saying "pop" and was bullied mercilessly by my college roommates on the west coast for it. By the time I'd finally converted to "soda", I'd moved back to the midwest and everyone thought I was all snobby for not saying pop.
ReplyDeleteCan't we all just get along?!?!?
And here I thought my sister who moved to New York for year came back home and was being all pretentious with all her "soda" talk.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a waitress in Texas, people would order a "coke" and then I would have to ask them what kind. They usually said Dr. Pepper.
ReplyDelete