crankymessiah wrote: ] ] Since the earliest research into the the English Language ] ] as spoken in North America was begun by Noah Webster in ] ] the early 18th century, the regional variations in ] ] dialect have always been the most challenging and ] ] difficult to explain field. Since the development of ] ] carbonated beverage in 1886, one of linguistic ] ] geography's most important and least investigated ] ] phenomena has been the sharp regional divisions in the ] ] use of the terms "pop" and "soda." Due to the domination ] ] of hard-line conservative lingusitic geographers in such ] ] leading institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Stanford and ] ] the University of the West Indies, this dilemma has been ] ] swept under the rug . . . until now. Using the new ] ] technologies of the Internet and the World Wide Web, I ] ] and my colleagues at the California Institute of ] ] Technology and Lewis & Clark College are undertaking a ] ] bold new research into this fascinating area. ] ] Great maps to go along with this. RE: The Pop vs. Soda Page |