That which we call a Coke/ By any other name would taste as sweet
Although I've lived almost all of my life in Michigan, I've found that outside sources have snuck in and affected my language. Jason blogged recently about standardizing his English when speaking with English-speakers from around the world. While international English speakers have definitely affected my language, I've even been influenced to standardize my American English somewhat from my native Michigander.
I've only just realized that I am now just as likely (or perhaps even more likely) to call a sweet, carbonated beverage a "soda" rather than a "pop" just because I've been around enough people who look at me funny, laugh or are confused by the p-word. If it comes in a can, though, it will always be pop - not because I'm particularly married to the term, but because it seems to be one word to me: a particularly Michiganderish "cannapahp."
srah - Tuesday, 25 January 2005 - 3:49 PM
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- Garrison Keillor did a bit on this week's A Prairie Home Companion about accents. A midwestern accent makes you sound kind of slow and like you'd be a good person to ask if someone needed to push their car somewhere.... [Read More]
Comments (8)
Cheryl - January 26, 2005 - 11:12 AM - ℓ
I use pop down here out of spite as much as out of habit because most of my friends are from not around here and say soda (eg Cali and Jersey).
Michael Conlen - January 26, 2005 - 5:24 PM - ℓ
It's not a pop, that's a sound. It's not soda, that's clear fizzy water. It's coke. Be careful, it's not Coke, just coke.
waiter: "Can I get you something?"
me: "I'll have coke"
waiter (setting down glass of dark fizzy liquid): "here you go"
me (with razor blade and mirror on the table): "I think you misunderstood"
It's not *that* coke either. It's just coke.
And now I leave you with this. Pop v Soda
Somewhere on my computer I have a bookmark to a site that teaches you how to speak like a Michigander. I went through the whole site. A lot of the seemed right, but there were a few that just seemed strange to me.