<p>M’sMom: I am from the Chicago area. When I said that in our family we specifically say what brand, I meant that we say “caffeine-free-diet-pepsi” or whatever else exactly. We may just call them “drinks” when referring to them in general, but not soda or pop. We don’t use “coke” to mean a cola beverage. There are now so many “soft drinks” of every imaginable combination of flavors and sweeteners-artificial sweeteners, caffeine or not, that it is impossible to keep track. I think when I was a kid there were only about half a dozen different kinds that I knew about with only one version of each–coke, pepsi, 7-up, root beer, ginger ale, green river and cream soda.</p>
<p>L-- I think she has outgrown that, but it did have a certain charm!</p>
<p>I don’t know about Texas; in my experience, it’s the mid-South where you say, “I’d like a Coke,” and expect to be asked, “what kind?” That is, unless you’re ordering iced tea, in which case you’ll be asked, “sweet?” (or possibly served sweet tea with no questions asked). :D</p>
<p>I grew up with all that and I miss it. I schooled my older kids fairly well, when they were small, so they were drinks-bilingual when we visited with family. S2 still has a lot to learn.</p>
<p>I never heard wicked in Massachusetts where I also went to college, but my nieces and nephew who grew up in NH use it all the time.</p>
<p>we called all carbonated drinks “coke” when I was a little kid in Southern CA. But when I moved to Northern CA when I was 8 I was quickly retrained to “soda”</p>
<p>BA from BC what is a “Grinder?”</p>
<p>historymom: a grinder is a submarine sandwich!</p>
<p>CBBBlinker: Well, it was “cough, cough” 30ish years ago, but my first roomie hailed from Haverhill and she said tonic and grinder–as did most of my wicked good friends who came from places diverse as Worcester, Lowell, Revere, Andover, Chelmsford, Milton and Scituate. They also had several other colorful staples that I cannot print here! I thought it was cute–what more can I say?</p>
<p>The “everything that is carbonated is a Coke” is definitely a mid-South thing; I grew up in NC and SC and that’s how I was brought up. </p>
<p>Here’s an even better quiz to ascertain if speak Southern: what do you call that type of shoe that you wear around the house in the winter to keep your feet warm?</p>
<p>Slippers? That’s the only term I’ve heard here in MN.</p>
<p>yeah slippers…why what do you call them?</p>
<p>Oh, you poor uninformed Yankees.</p>
<p>Bedroom shoes! They’re called “bedroom shoes”!</p>
<p>Hey guys! There’s a whole thread on the soda/pop/coke question.</p>
<p>I guess that makes sense but it’s more syllables than “slippers” and not entirely accurate… I wear mine in every room in the house ;)</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of “bedroom shoes.” But I’ve heard of “bedroom eyes”. On that basis, my first reaction would be that “bedroom shoes” was another phrase for the footwear aka “f***-me pumps”.</p>
<p>I thought my mother (Alabama born and raised) was the only one who used the term “bedroom shoes”! Must be a Southern thing :)</p>
<p>New poster here too.</p>
<p>I have so many questions I don’t know where to begin!</p>
<p>patsmom - I thought I was the only one who called them “bedroom shoes”, too (well, except for my family) until I met a woman from Tennessee who used the same term. It’s definitely a Southern thing. Apparently we don’t care about syllables! :)</p>
<p>I think I’ve identified a regional nuance in the connotation of a common word. What number comes to mind when someone uses the word “several”? I grew up in New Jersey (a soda state), where several connoted 3 [to me]. I now live in Minnesota (a pop state) where several connotes … 5 or 6? </p>
<p>I believe I’ve discovered a regional difference here. What mental image does SEVERAL conger up to you?</p>
<p>Several is 3 or 4, possibly 5.</p>
<p>"several"is 3 to me, but this fall my MIL bought DS 5 notebooks because the letter home said he should have “several” According to her “a few” is 3 and “several” is 5. We are both Californians, born and raised.</p>
<p>I was a linguistics major at UCLA a long time back.</p>
<p>It is true that language is regional. This is what makes communication such an art. I (already having passed the half century mark) continue to learn different acceptable meanings to words I’d never known before.</p>
<p>I am also from CA.</p>
<p>Couple is 2
Few is 3-5
Several is 4-7
“A bunch”: 5-12</p>
<p>approximately 
Few and several can overlap, with several being a little more numerous than few. See! It’s an art!</p>
<p>Here’s one I haven’t really solved since college days: What is the difference between continuous and continual?</p>