Mapping How Americans Talk - Soda vs. Pop vs. Coke

What's your general term for a sweetened carbonated beverage? What word or words do you use to address a group of two or more people? What do you call it when the rain falls while the sun is shining?

Former Harvard professor Bert Vaux asked tens of thousands of people across the U.S. these questions and released the results as the 2003 Harvard Dialect Survey. The data are fascinating; they reveal patterns of migration, unexpected linguistic kinships between regions, and the awesome variety of words we say and how we say them.

The study has wormed its way into popular consciousness and periodically morphs into a meme (just search "accent tag" on YouTube). Last summer, North Carolina State University graduate student Joshua Katz turned Vaux's geographical data into a set of stunning heat maps that went viral.

For the video above, we called people across the country to ask them a few of Vaux's questions, then layered the answers with maps based on Katz's. You'll hear what Philadelphians call a group of people, the many ways of pronouncing "pecan," and what Southerners mean when they say "the devil is beating his wife."

To delve deeper into the world of dialects, check out Vaux's original study, Katz's maps, and the Phonological Atlas of North American English. See also Deborah Fallows' writing on language across the country for the American Futures project. Thanks to FoBoGro and the Johnson Casket Company for their help.

[jon]

What do you call an insect that rolls into a ball?

"A pill bug"
"a rollie pollie"

"uh... shrimp?"

[erinvictoria]

Growing up in Alabama
"Y'all wanna coke?"
"Yeah"
"What kind?"
"Dr. Pepper"

[benschrader]

“A waste of god damn time!”

That cracked me up. 😂

[Shulktiem]

It’s funny seeing the whole country call it a subway, but I live right near DC, so I was like “oh the metro!”

[stancakes]

This gave me chills. It just made me feel so connected to the people around me.

[awildfilingcabinet]

Pennsylvania: goes to subway
Also Pennsylvania: “Yeah, can I get a uh... *hoogie* ?”

[leahmeyers]

"What do you call a point that wasn't worth discussing"
"A god damn waste of time" gotta love the south

[CHICLE]

What do you call the insect that rolls into a ball. I don't know what you're talking about ... a shrimp
😂

[pixistr]

As a non-american, this whole video confuses me greatly.

[thecanucklehead]

Im canadian but as far as i can tell i just sound like someone from minnesota

[crneymar]

"i don't know what were talking about is that a shrimp?" LOL

[TheMightyCheeseball]

Colorado person here, I've never heard anyone say "online" when referring to waiting in a line.

[huckthatdish]

Whenever pronounces moot as “a waste of your goddamn time” is correct

[dr.limelemon]

Poor Florida. It's just a mixture of southern and northeastern.

[anniesutliff]

See but I appreciate that it was a thematic map, because some states have drastically different cultures in different parts of them. Northern and Southern Virginia are SO different, it’s strange.

[idzidz]

I'm pretty sure "Soda" and "Pop" can put aside their differences and bully "Coke"

[miaseb]

i could tell there wasn't anyone from Pittsburgh cause there was no "yinz" for what do you call a group of people

[panner]

I like how most of comments completely miss the point of the video. So many comments complain about how a way of saying something is wrong, when the video shows over and over again how different people in different areas simply refer to things differently.

[brendenmcnulty]

Coke wtf I call it Soda, coke is a type of Soda.

[matthewwagner]

You wanna have a coke?
Yeah sure!
What kind?

Pepsi
Triggered!