http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/maps.php

Great stuff for those of us (hi Bitt) with an interest in US and/or UK English.

Do people really use "anymore" in positive senses? (Q54-57)

And I've often heard it said that "traffic circle" is the US English for "roundabout", but it seems that the ratio of users is only about 2:1 (although in the region of the US where a roundabout is most likely to be found, they seem to call it a "rotary").

Peter

I've never heard "rotary" used where I live or anywhere I've gone. Actually, that's the first time I've heard it used for something other than a telephone.

A few of the people I know will call it a "roundabout", and I do sometimes, when I'm feeling British Most of the time I say "traffic circle".

I'm not sure what you mean about "anymore".

My mom works at National Geographic, and we have one of their HUGE atlases. There's a section on US dialects, in which you can see all the crazy terms areas of the US has for different things. Some are pretty weird.

Oh, and one last thing. Coca-cola is SODA

This page is always a fun read when talking about the soda/pop/coke controversy.

Sadly, the zoomable java map seems to be disabled now.. It was always fun to zoom into the state of Pennsylvania and see the battle line between Philly (soda) and Pittsburgh (pop.) Having grown up in Philly and gone to school in State College (nearly equidistant between Philly and the Burgh) it was always fun to get into soda/pop wars.

I'm not sure what you mean about "anymore".

In British English "any more" is (a) two words and (b) only used in negative sentences:

"I don't do landscapes any more" is normal

"I do exclusively portraits any more" sounds utterly wrong

Using "nowadays" works in both positive and negative sentences, which is presumably how "any more" leaked over from negative to positive ones.

Almost all those questions offer the British term as one of the options (I think they must have found two Britons to answer "car boot sale" to Q58) but some don't (e.g. Q62, where in Britain it's called the "central reservation").

Peter

"59.What do you call the game wherein the participants see who can throw a knife closest to the other person (or alternately, get a jackknife to stick into the ground or a piece of wood?"

Dangerous.

[I've never heard "rotary" used

Boston + New England

Dangerous.

Ha! Good catch! (ouch!)

I think it's called "Mumbledy-Peg" (sp?).

"118.What do you call a drive-through liquor store?"

Proof that capitalism wins over sanity. If you're so impatient to get your booze that you can't be bothered to get out of your car to buy it, are you likely to wait until you've driven home to drink it?

Its "Pop"

"Coke" is just wrong.

As the surey says....

People who say "Pop" are much cooler.

My roommate in New England always asked if I wanted a "tonic." Of course that meant having to drive through the rotary to the Stop N Shop, unless you went to the packy and got some with the beeah you need to stock up on Saturday night for the Pats game on Sunday...

I still enjoy reading this page to jog my memory of the days in New England...

Pissah pohst!

-Zeke

I didn't say "Coke." That would be stupid, as it's a brand name. I said "soda." And I'll point out that I'm not going to say "it's soda." You can call it whatever you want.

I always call it Coke but then again that's because Coke is about all I'll drink.

I do like the word pop for the non-Coke drinks better than soda so I guess I'm . Soda just sounds so old fashioned.

I have an idear... Lets drive to New Yokk in the Cahh.

My family is from Maine, and this is how most of my cousins would pronounce that sentence above. Then again, they made fun of me for not pronouncing the 't' in Baltimore, and "Goin Dowwwn the Oshean, Hon!", and driving up to Blair (Bel Air) and washing your hands in a thing called the "Zink".

Dialects are cool.

Pissah pohst!

Yeah, but if I'd have said "to go to the Store 24 where you bang a left at the light after the rotary to get a tonic and a Hoodsie. Then hang with the townies while goofing on the folks at the standout in the rotary," it could have reached wicked pissah status, you think, no? So don't I...

In Texas all we have is what seems to be 4 or 5 different accents, but no vocabulary like Bahston has that I know of...

I remember when I was in Montana about 25 years ago that they had drive through liquor stores. These actually sold mixed drinks. Like in a plasic cup for consumption while driving. Pretty Crazy.

ROFLMAO.

-Zeke

I always loved how Americans call bags, "sacks" as in we are taking a trip and having a sack lunch...too cool!

Then there is the old "zee" versus "zed" thing...I went to elementry school in our nation's capital (Ottawa) and was taugh to say "zee"...when I moved north, I was chastised everytime I tried to use it in spelling...funny though, you never hear about a Camaro "zed" 28 in Canada...

I'm in the middle of installing Oracle (again), and it' supposed to be done in seven minutes, so I can't hang out long, but I'll shoot off one and get back to you later.

I occasionally hear a positive ``anymore'' in #56 sense from older non-redneck Southern folks.

> I didn't say "Coke." That would be stupid, as it's a brand name.

But I'll bet you make a xerox, use a kleenex, and throw a frisbee around. I say give me a coke personally, and I would really prefer a Coke, but I would say in a pinch that any cola would do.

Okay, now that I'm done installing Oracle....

While I think that many of these questions are interesting, I believe that their sample is flawed. For example, there are many terms that are commonly mispronounced except by the cognoscenti (read ``superior jerks'') that are overwhelmingly shown as pronounced correctly in the survey.

There are many others as well. For example, aunt (ont vs. ant) is probably pronounced ont by about 20% of the population around here -- for whatever reason, the black folks. But it doesn't really show that in their graph.

I think that their sampling is flawed in a very similar way to the ``Dewey beats Truman'' polls were flawed. They're only sampling folks that are interested in this in the first place, which is liable to attract people that are hyper-correct. Not exactly a random poll.

Oddly, I never hear anyone say ``xerox'' generically anymore. Always photocopy now. Used to back in the 70s and early 80s, though.

For example, aunt (ont vs. ant)

Hey, wait a minute! It's pronounced "aunt"!

but they missed my favorite....
have ever been AXED a question???

"I do exclusively portraits any more" sounds utterly wrong

I agree. I've never heard it used like that.

How about "Jacuzzi" and "Zamboni" Both are the last names of the particular pioneers of both devices that are now synonymous with what they are....

I always loved how Americans call bags, "sacks" as in we are taking a trip and having a sack lunch...too cool!

Thats really funny... sack lunch. I've always said bag lunch... and I grew up and live in Maryland... I wonder if its regional.

Then there is the old "zee" versus "zed" thing

Hmm again. I've never heard people around here say "zed". How would you say, oh, yeah, the new Nissan 350 Zed.

The think I wish they tought in my elementary school - putting that little notch in the 'Z' and to a lesser extent, the numeral 7. Its easier to distinguish a handwritten 'Z' from a 2 if the Z has that little mark. Same for 0 and O. That is the worst when you're trying to enter a product key and there are a lot of O's and Zeros, and they don't slash the zero.

to go to the Store 24 where you bang a left at the light after the rotary to get a tonic and a Hoodsie. Then hang with the townies while goofing on the folks at the standout in the rotary

Hhaha...
I need to get a hold of Austin Powers 3 and transcribe that one scene where they speak in "English" with english subtitles...

I could be mistaken, but I think that no one makes Zambonis other than the Zamboni company. However, you're still virtually right, as if someone else started making them, they would still be commonly known as Zambonis.

Actually, it looks like I am mistaken about that, as over at the Zamboni web site, it says:

Zamboni ice resurfacers were featured exclusively on the ice during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake.

which, when corrected for an apparently misplaced modifier, would imply that there are now ice surfacers other than those made by Zamboni.