Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Tom-a-to, Tom-ah-to


Above is a map of regional use of generic terms for soft drinks in the US (curiously, 'soft drink' doesn't make the cut). I find the use of 'coke' as a generic term kind of interesting. It's sort of like kleenex, except if you ask for a kleenex nobody is going to complain if you get a Scott tissue instead of a Kimberly-Clark.

"I'll have a coke please"
"What kind?"
"7-up"

To see what classifies as 'other', or for Canadian statistics, go here (Massachusetts calls it 'tonic')
[h/t: Gene Expression]


2 comments:

Cath@VWXYNot? said...

The Scots call it juice... seriously.

"Can of juice please pal".
"What kind of juice?"
"Coke".

Anonymous said...

I don't understand pal. What else would you call carbonated fluid squeezed from the coke fruit?