How come people from Chicago call soda...pop...and how come people from Chicago call the living room?

Show all answers

Most cities/regions have their own dialect and terminology... why should Chicago be any different?

BTW, I've always said "living room."

@S G: That's because "Cash Station" is the brand name of the first ATMs to appear in Chicago. There are still a lot of them around.

feathermree

I guess because we are the "MELTING POT" city and there are people from all over that share their cultures and traditions with everyone. It's just how we have grown up to know what these things are called. Why do people in Alabama call pop - COKE? Even when they don't want the brand coke, they want a sprite coke. That is much more weird than us calling it pop.

blue-eyez

Chicago isnt the only place where ppl say those things. I have a lot of family in pennsylvania who use those terms. They also say sneakers instead of tennis shoes.

StellaBtheWriter

Uh-uh. We don't call it the "front room." It's the "frontchroom." ;)

Kris

In Jamaica were I grew up its called a Drawing room and it houses the settee
and in here we have high tea with water crackers and jam
rather british

Don

Oh....I wouldn't say that Chicago has a monopoly on colloquialisms. Down here in New Orleans: The living room is the front parlor. A 'soda' is a coke, no matter what the flavor. We keep our clothes in a locker, not a closet.

Baron_von_Party

There is a chart you can look at that tracks where in the country "soda" is used vs "pop":
http://popvssoda.com:2998/

chitowncf

I am a born and raised Chicagoan and I have been married to a man from Baltimore for five years. We laugh at the differences in words and pronunciations. He says katty corner, I say kitty corner. Even with ethnic terms, we say it differently. He likes one brand of hot dog. Is there any other besides Vienna for a Chicagoan?

I had a roommate in college from upper New York state, who wore a dressing gown; I wore a robe.

I think it may have to do with who settled in the area when and the colloquialisms that developed. It is a regional thing too. How many northerners say y'all?

hazellaura

I call it pop because its pop. I call the living room the living room. But I also knows its a cardinal rule not to put ketchup on a hot dog. Our beefs are the best and our pizza is second to none. Chicago really is the best!

DJSyn

I guess because thats how we were raised...POP is POP and the living room IS the front room? wats the big deal...The only time It gets mentioned to me is when I go to cali where they call POP soda??? I say you kno wat i mean .....just give me a dam diet coke....and make me some cookies LOL

S.....

They also call ATM's cash stations.

Paul01chiman

Well California calls their supervisors (on a factory or grape fields) "Buttler" and I know there's many differences but we all have something.

Darushka

Probably the same reason people on the east coast call a drinking fountain a "bubbler" and shopping carts a "carriage". Different strokes for different folks.

KID EMO

In Jamaica were I grew up its called a Drawing room and it houses the settee
and in here we have high tea with water crackers and jam
rather british

allexxxandraa <3

really i never knew that?
well and um i live in chicago and we call a living room a living room. about the pop we use both pop and sode.

xjoizey

We have soda in Jersey and pop in Colorado. Living room in both places

mr danger

Also they identify apartment building by the number of "flats" [not "apartments "] in it "I just moved into a nice 12 flat in Berwyn.

Chelley

I was raised in Chicago and now live in Atlanta. I never thought that saying the word "pop" was weird until I moved here and now I just think it sounds like the most annoying word.. I just say soda now. And I have always called my living room by that, I don't usually here people refer to it as a front room.

Joshua M

I'm from Chicago and I've always said SODA.. my sister is from chicago too and says POP.

So who knows.

Yep, I say living room, and sometimes front room

I say GYM SHOES..i've never said sneakers.

As for accent..older chicagoans have it....like my Dad and his 'winduhs' for windows and 'hunnerd' for hundred....heh heh.

I once talked to a guy from Australia and he said...COLA!...hee hee.

Allison.

its just their culture i guess its their colliquial which means their city or state slang

Wootage King

Because we are better than you and need to remind ourselves by talking different.

dovebird

people from diffeent areas say and refer to thing diffrently

sugarbee

You know, people in Denver also call it "pop".....and in the south where I grew up the front room was also called the living room......I can't explain that one though. A large majority of people living in Chicago migrated from the South in the 40's and 50's seeking work and I guess they just brought along a lot of their southern sayings.

Bailey S

what else would you call it???? : ) i'm a chicago girl!!!

hot_rican_4_ju

Really? when I hear people say "soda" it sounds so weird..

When I met my wife she said "Soda" for some odd reason her nutty family says "soda", I was like in my house we say "pop", lol. Don't say Ur from Chicago is u say "soda".

as far as "living room", sometimes I say "fronchroom"

What really gets me, is when people say, Chicagoans have an accent. lol I dont think we do.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: