American speech mapped, in vivid color
Just when I thought I鈥檇 had enough of red and blue maps for a while, what should show up on my doorstep but a new book full of them: 鈥淪peaking American: How Y鈥檃ll, Youse, and You Guys Talk: A Visual Guide,鈥� by Josh Katz.
Let鈥檚 note, though, at this moment of postelection fatigue, that Mr. Katz鈥檚 maps aren鈥檛 only red and blue. Many are in shades of green and purple and orange as well.聽
Katz鈥檚 book maps word choices and pronunciations across the United States, complete with sections on 鈥渉ow to pretend you鈥檙e from鈥� various places.聽
In 2013, Katz, a graphics editor at The New York Times, published that drew more traffic than any other page on the Times website that year. (I wrote about it in the March 10, 2014, issue. See .) The book is based on more than 350,000 responses to his quiz.
Under the title 鈥淐arbonation with an identity crisis,鈥� for instance, is a map illustrating the prevalence of soda versus pop versus coke.
Soda wins by a landslide, the preferred term of 59 percent of the population.
In vivid red, soda prevails in New England and along the Atlantic coast, through the eastern halves of New York and Pennsylvania, before fading to pink across Virginia. California, western Nevada, and most of Arizona are also 鈥渟oda鈥� territory, like most of Florida and much of Wisconsin, plus a good-sized area around St. Louis.聽
Pop, in blue on the map, is favored by 18 percent and prevails in the Upper Midwest and as far west as eastern Washington. Generic, lowercase, non-trademark-protected coke, in shades of yellow and ocher, prevails across the South, as far west as eastern New Mexico.
Katz grew up outside Philadelphia, in South Jersey, and was intrigued by the idea that the term he knew for a long sandwich with meat and cheese was 鈥渉oagie,鈥� whereas his friends from New York called such a thing a 鈥渟ub.鈥� Where is the dividing line between hoagie and sub? What caused it, and if it鈥檚 moving, why so?聽
Katz鈥檚 maps show more intense usage of a particular term or pronunciation in more intense color 鈥� thus Milwaukee, a bastion of 鈥渟oda鈥� versus 鈥減op,鈥� for instance, appears as a fierce blob of red.聽
Sometimes usage patterns seem to follow the political lines of the map. Other patterns seem to follow natural borders. 鈥淐oke鈥� starts to yield to 鈥減op鈥� as one crosses the Red River north from Texas to Oklahoma, for instance, and the Ohio River seems to create a wispy, almost white band dividing 鈥減op鈥� from 鈥渃oke.鈥�
Indeed, the patches of lighter colors tell their own interesting tales. New England is solidly red for 鈥渟oda,鈥� but Boston and environs are just a bit lighter. That鈥檚 because tonic as a term for soft drink lives on there, though it appears to be on its way out.聽
More than 30 percent of residents born in the 1940s say 鈥渢onic鈥� (it sounds like 鈥淭WAH-nik鈥�) 鈥� but over 95 percent of the under-25 cohort say 鈥渟oda.鈥�
