Comments on: Mapping Regional Language Use

By: Kelly Johnston

Kelly Johnston — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:49:16 +0000

Nicely done Wendy.

Ethan’s comments about scale-dependent differences are spot-on and speak directly to a key consideration when constructing any map…how much detail will the underlying data support?

Along these lines, take a look at the Commoncensus.org site for another take on mapping crowdsourced data.

By: Ray

Ray — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:27:46 +0000

in both the eastern and western parts of Canada that I visited, they use “pop” exclusively over “soda”. “Soda” is so differentiated from “pop” that if you ask for “soda” you will always get tonic water/club soda. If I unthinkingly asked for “soda pop” and then specified “Sprite” or “Coke”, I would sometimes get that drink mixed with club soda.

Also, Canada is NOT on the free refill train yet. Only in the American fast food chains should you expect free refills on soft drinks.

By: ewg4x

ewg4x — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 14:07:06 +0000

This is a great one: http://popvssoda.com:2998/countystats/total-county.html

I think the granularity of breaking it down by county increases the effectiveness and accuracy of the results. None of those people Wendy polled must have been from Pittsburgh because western Pennsylvania and New York are big “pop” areas. The “Rust Belt” of western New York and Pennsylvania is more similar to Michigan and Ohio, both centers of “pop,” than the east coast Philly/New York City. I grew up in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, which is torn between its Virginia/soda influence and the pop of the Rust Belt and coal country.

By: Bethany

Bethany — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:55:40 +0000

I had seen that “Pop-vs-Soda” map Chris cites before, but find your approach much more legible, Wendy. But maybe that’s because I’m a freak hillbilly soda-pop drinker. (At least I didn’t tell you it was “sody-pop,” and get excluded from the study as an outlier!)

By: Melissa

Melissa — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 23:17:53 +0000

Oregonians say both “soda” and “pop”, although I’d say “pop” predominates.

Also, there might be something for you in the Dictionary of American Regional English. Not digitized so you’d have to pull it from the stacks–let me know if you need a stunt-librarian to perform this.

By: Chris Gist

Chris Gist — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 22:03:20 +0000

http://popvssoda.com:2998/

By: Wendy R

Wendy R — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:54:48 +0000

It would be interesting to also map the locations of various bottling companies to see how that looks. I keep thinking about how Coca-Cola is headquartered in Atlanta and the southern part of the US refers to coke.

I knew there was something about Kentucky….

By: Gillian

Gillian — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:33:35 +0000

Massachusetts boy also says bubbler.

I like the map, very colorful.