Re: Dialect and register

Davis, Iain E. scripsit:

> In the U.S. the meaning of coke, soda, cola, and pop varies by region.
Sure does.  I urge all native speakers, but especially those from
North America, to take the Harvard on-line dialect survey at
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect/ .  The maps are fascinating!
Don't forget to use the per-question comment feature if you think the
question is subtly "off" (I used it to explain the difference between
*get on line* 'add yourself to an existing line' and *get in line*
'form a line', e.g.)

> I think that where "coke" is
> "all carbonated...." that "cola" refers to Coca-Cola...and vice-versa.
For me "Coke" is Coca-cola and "cola" is any cola (Pepsi, RC, etc.), but
neither can refer to non-cola drinks.

--
John Cowan                              jcowan@reutershealth.com
http://www.reutershealth.com            http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Humpty Dump Dublin squeaks through his norse
                Humpty Dump Dublin hath a horrible vorse
But for all his kinks English / And his irismanx brogues
                Humpty Dump Dublin's grandada of all rogues.
                        --Cousin James

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