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

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

That is UTTERLY cool.

[velvetknife.livejournal.com]

"Y'all want a Coke?" "Sure." "What kind?"

[runnerwolf.livejournal.com]

I couldn't even hear the difference between pen and pin until I had lived outside of WV for 7 years. I still have to think about it to pronounce them diferently.

[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...?

[doctorpepper.livejournal.com]

Coca-Cola has a weird and twisted history with trademark law -- they're responsible for more precedent-setting cases than anyone but Disney, if I remember right. I'm trying to remember the stuff from "God, Country, and Coca-Cola," but I'm not even positive I have the correct title there. ANYway ... originally they tried to prevent people even from using "Coke" to refer to "Coca-Cola," because it gave them one more thing they had to protect. They were already fighting legal battles constantly trying to keep people from selling drinks with "Cola" or "Coca" in the title, and only succeeded with the latter (hence Pepsi-Cola surviving the legal gauntlet, even though they dropped the "cola" later).

They ended up protecting "Coke" (and trademarking it, I assume) when they realized how many soda fountains were giving people products like "Koke" and "Coak," things they bought at a discount or were given a percentage to shill, when customers asked for a "Coke." Fountain business was the vast majority of sales at the time.

I would bet that's when "coke" started to be used as a generic, particularly since a) it's a Southern thing (a real Southern thing, not a New Orleans thing), b) Coca-Cola's based in the South, and c) especially at the time, sodas sold much better down here -- we don't have the cold weather that makes us reach for a hot chocolate instead, and southerners had always been consuming more sweet foods/beverages than northerners anyway.

I forget what my point was. Oh yeah. I'd bet Coca-Cola doesn't bother putting the "please don't use coke as a generic" ads in because of the unlikelihood of anyone doing so in contexts that would jeopardize their trademark. It's such a distinctly southern thing that it wouldn't show up in anything formal, unlike using Xerox or Google as a verb or Kleenex instead of tissue.

[ilmarinen.livejournal.com]

I've heard too many discussions about this to even recall what I would instinctually say. However, I didn't see the option that I would think of if asked..."soda-pop" which is how I think we spoke of it when I was a child. So I would be "other." Eh--Midwestern mother, Californian father.

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

You *are* crazy. ;)