Posted July 12, 2011
cjrgreen: (OT: Regional use of "soda", "pop", "soft drink", "coke" (as a generic term), etc. in the US is so noticeable that linguists actually study it. See [url=http://popvssoda.com:2998]http://popvssoda.com:2998[/url]/)
Vestin: I have yet to find a single person on the Internet that uses "pop" ;P. "Diet coke", OTOH, sounds fairly natural... unlike "a coke" :\. Then again - I'm a foreigner, so my intuitions might be even more bewildering... It's interesting, if you look at the map for for Alberta, what I assume to be Calgary, Red Deer and Edmonton (it's hard to tell, since it's pretty distorted), all three are used in Calgary and Edmonton, while Red Deer apparently doesn't use "soda." (or, at least, no one who's responded does). Makes sense that you'd have more diversity in the larger cities.
For the most part, though, in North America "coke" is a southern thing, "pop" a northern thing and "soda" is all over, but mostly NE US.
Oh, and on the subject at hand: one lunch at Opa! or Subway, or part of a lunch at most sit-down restaurants. On the other hand, a normal, homemade lunch would be 3-6 lunches, I'd imagine.
Gah! You've obviously never tasted the difference between cane sugar rum and beet sugar rum... a mojito is not properly made unless it uses the former... :)
Post edited July 12, 2011 by Tallin