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Where a Hero Is a Hoagie

We may all be Americans, but the way we talk says a lot about which part of the U.S. we call home

What do you call a fizzy, sugary drink in a can? Is it soda, pop, or something else?

Your answer is an example of what’s called a regionalism. That’s a word or phrase specific to certain parts of the country. Though we all use regionalisms, many people assume they talk the same way everyone else does.

“You might not realize that the things you say are distinctive,” says Josh Katz, author of Speaking American, a book of maps that show how Americans in different parts of the country talk. “[But] people’s language is very tied up to their sense of identity and their sense of place.”

The data for Katz’s maps (two of which appear here) came from an online dialect survey that asked Americans what they call common things. What’s your response to these questions?

What do you call a soft drink?

©Josh Katz

All of Katz’s maps are color-coded, like the one above. The darker the color of an area, the higher the percentage of people there who use that term. Where colors are pale, people use multiple terms for the same thing. In Oklahoma, for example, the terms soda, pop, and coke are each popular in certain areas.

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You drink from a what in school?

In the South and Northeast, people sip from a water fountain. But out West, it’s a drinking fountain. In a few states, like Wisconsin, people say bubbler, which likely refers to the way that water bubbles up from the fountain.

How do you address a
group of people?

©Josh Katz

About half the 350,000 survey respondents say you guys when talking to a group of people. But in many areas of the South, y’all (a contraction of you all ) is used most often. The next most common? You all and simply you. A mix of terms can be heard in the lightly shaded places on the map above.

How would you say 3:45?

When it comes to reading a clock or a watch, three forty-five is the most popular way to refer to that time of day. But in the Midwest, you may be told the time is quarter to four. Meanwhile, in the Southeast, the clock strikes quarter till four, and in New England, the phrase quarter of four has its fans.

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The name of this sandwich is . . .

In most of the U.S., a sandwich on a long roll is called a sub. But in the Northeast, the name varies: from Italian sandwich in Maine and grinder in Massa­chu­setts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, to hero or wedge in New York. In parts of Pennsylvania, people say hoagie.

Maps excerpted from SPEAKING AMERICAN: How Y’all, Youse , and You Guys Talk: A Visual Guide by Josh Katz. Copyright ©2016 by Josh Katz. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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