The South is Crazy

[gfish]

Found this set of US linguistic maps linked from Kuro5hin. Lots of fun, but I particularly love the map for 'What is your generic term for a sweetened carbonated beverage?'.

Beyond the soda/pop issue, the fact that people use 'coke' generically always cracks me up. Does the Coca-Cola company advertise in writing journals telling people not to do this?

I'm a bit disappointed that there wasn't a map for 'Do you pronounse pin and pen the same?', just so I could prove that I'm not crazy.

Comments

[p7a77.livejournal.com]

I only checked a handful of the pronounciation maps, but it seems like those are fairly evenly distributed. I wonder if easy of transportation has done that? I wonder how they'd have looked 100 years ago.

I like the one about pronouncing the "h" in history, humor, etc... one choice was "I pronounce it", one was "I don't pronounce it", one was "I could go either way", and one was "other". What the hell is the "other"? Maybe they pronounce it as a different sound...?

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

Or they avoid the word entirely for fear they'll mess it up.