New Englanders: a dialect question

[smoogatz]

Soda, pop, or something else?

Working on a book and want to get it right!

[flvegan]

1. When I lived there, I used the generic "a coke" but definitely soda and not pop.

[bigwillq]

2. I call it soda

I live in CT.

[salvorhardin]

3. Soda

I grew up in Central NYS. Out here in the mid-West they tend to say pop.

[htuttle]

9. Except in WI/Great Lakes...where we say 'soda'

When someone says 'pop' around here, they probably come from IL, IN or OH.

[SocratesInSpirit]

4. Speaking as a born-and-bred New Englander

I say soda. A small minority of (much) older New Englanders might call it tonic. But I've never heard a native say pop... ever. :)

[freethought]

40. Go with "soda"

Born and raised in Massachusetts and lived in Maine for several years. A rare few people I have known use the word "tonic" but "soda" has been the standard.

[yewberry]

5. Tonic.

Seriously, it's tonic.

[graywarrior]

28. Yep

Tonic

[yewberry]

30. Hey, you.

I saw that you're back in New England.

Nice. I'm kind of jealous.

Actually, I'm heading out that way for a visit next month--my brother and his wife (way down south in Framingham) are having a baby! So, huzzah, a visit. We're planning to hit F'ham, coastal NH, the Lakes Region, Sebago Lake, and maybe the North Shore.

I'm sitting here finding it kind of interesting that you, originally from the city of sin, and my mom, your contemporary from Ipswich, both ended up in NH. She's a bit south of you, but only 30 miles or so.

Funny.

[graywarrior]

36. Most crazy people from the North Shore end up in NH

The entire town of North Conway is populated with people from the Lynn, Salem and Danvers areas.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. In Rhode Island, a milkshake is a "cabinet"

Go figure. At least it used to be in the old diners and "spas" (another strange term for a luncheonette type place)

[Eugene]

7. Soda.

Eastern Mass., but some of the older people may call it "tonic."

[AlCzervik]

8. Tonic. and water came from the bubblah.

[htuttle]

10. Do they say 'bubbler' in New England!?

I thought that was a Wisconsin-only thing.

[SocratesInSpirit]

12. Yes, they do!

When I worked in the metro-NYC area, no one knew what a "bubbler" was. They call it a water fountain.

And sprinkles are "jimmies". :D

(I currently live in CT but grew up in "Woosta", MA)

[AlCzervik]

13. hells yes, born and raised 6 miles north of Boston and even though i now live in Ca.

it will always be a bubblah and stuff is still wicked pissa.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

18. The funniest dialect joke ever - but true

Woman new to New England encounters neighborhood child of same approximate age as her daughter and tells child that she can't wait until the two girls meet. The little Rhode Island girl, just to make conversation, asks the mother:

"Does she have PSDS?"

"PSDS?" replies the mother, "What is PSDS" thinking it's a dread disease.

"You know, "said the frustrated child "PSDS" as she indicated her own


















EARRRINGS!!!!! PSDS = Pierced Ears!!!!

[AlCzervik]

19. hehe.

you know what's funny, i left Meffa 11 years ago when i was 30, here in Ca. i have an accent, que the people that do horrible impressions of an NE accent, when i go back east to visit people ask me where i'm from.

[Sparkly]

33. My parents (not native New Englanders) recalled being on a train...

... and overhearing a loud conversation about who had and hadn't "gone to the potty" the night before. ("Did Joan go to the potty?" "She tried." etc.) They finally realized "potty" was "party!"

For the record, I am a native of Connecticut and it's definitely "soda." (And subway sandwiches in Connecticut are "grinders" -- I thought everybody called them that!)

[bicentennial_baby]

14. Not in NWestern Ma...

It's a water fountain there.

[yewberry]

16. Childhood bubbler drinker here.

In eastern MA and southern NH, anyway.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

15. Hah! Yes! It's a fact. nt.

[Bluerthanblue]

11. it used to be 'tonic'- but

there are so many new people here that you never hear that much anymore.

I'd say 'soda' unless you are in a very cloistered area-- or talking about life in my small rural town as a kid- in which case it'd be tonic.

(half a century old)

peace~

[flor de jasmim]

17. In the Boston area "tonic" was very popular in the 60s and 70s

(can't speak for the other decades!)

A milkshake had no icecream
Clothes were taken to the cleanSers, not the cleaners

And AG Ramsey Clark's last name was pronounced "Clack" (I remember writing "Clack" on an exam just after moving there...got it marked wrong, unfairly in my view, since the teacher said "Clack").

[TomClash]

20. Tonic or soda, not pop

I think pop is a midwestern term.

[BadgerKid]

21. http://popvssoda.com

http://popvssoda.com

[A-Long-Little-Doggie]

22. Soda

and I always drank water out of a bubbler. I grew up in Attleboro and Auburn. Went to HS and college in Worcester. College was where I first found out that not everyone called a bubbler a bubbler!

[dtotire]

23. Soda in CT

[smoogatz]

24. Soda it is, then.

And thanks to all who responded for your help. The "tonic" thing came as news to me; maybe I can use it sometime.

[MassLiberal]

29. yes, and you have to pronounce it correctly

In central Mass. you'd hear "tonic" pronounced "tawnic" with a strong "awe" sound.

For the record, I grew up in western Mass., and we always called it "soda." :-)

[DFW]

25. I lived in Massachusetts for a few years

They ALWAYS called it soda up there

[maveric]

26. "Tonic", Merrimack Valley MA.

And "Coke".

[NRaleighLiberal]

27. In Rhode Island we called it soda. My wife, who is from Mass., called it tonic.

I've heard pop used, but not while living in New England.

[krispos42]

31. I am your answer from Heaven

I think falling down on your knees in gratitude is the least you can do. Naming a son after me is acceptable.


Enjoy.










:-)

[yewberry]

35. Yeah, but

that map doesn't even mention what New Englanders call fizzy beverages: tonic!

[krispos42]

41. I'm a New Englander

I've never heard the phrase used outside of a "gin and tonic". :shrug:

[Canuckistanian]

32. In Canada, it's pop

I NEVER heard anyone use "soda", unless it was a part of "Cream Soda" or "Club Soda".

[Sparkly]

34. I know in Michigan, it's "pap."

Or at least that's what my sister called it after living there a few years! (Just the way she said "pop.")

[Gormy Cuss]

37. It's "soda" just about everywhere except pockets of Eastern MA.

There it's tonic.

[NutmegYankee]

38. Soda. n/t

[Eurobabe]

39. NY Albany area & PA east of Lancaster, rest of northeast = SODA

I found out the hard way when I moved from northern Ohio to Troy NY as a teenager - I took a beating for calling Coke "pop." It's SODA!!!