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Appalachia, where Scotts-Irish settlers did not come from New
England. “Hickey-horse” in the coastal regions of North Carolina is

consistent with other linguistic and ethnic variations.
For whatever reasons, the insect known most commonly as the

dragonfly has a variety of names. In northern and eastern New
Jersey it is a “Darning Needle”, but in Pennsylvania and West

Virginia it is a “Spindle,” in Virginia a “Snake Doctor” and on the

coast through Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, a
“Snake Feeder

American English on the East Coast is called the Charleston

Dialect. One of its characteristic features is a pronunciation of
“lawyer” that sounds so much like “liar” as almost to be a social

commentary. Charleston Dialect is often considered to be the
highest prestige dialect of all Southern English and has more in

common with upper-class British English of the eighteenth century
than other dialects (New England dialects, despite their prestige in

America, have more in common with middle- and lower-class East

Anglian settlers).
All of this leads us to that earthshaking question debated by

millions of American college students: Is a fizzy drink “soda” or
“pop”? As the map at http://www.popvssoda.com shows, “soda” is

used mainly on the East Coast, in California, and from Chicago
north along Lake Superior and around St Louis, MO. “Pop” is

Midwestern and Northwestern, and “coke” is used in the south.

Some studies suggest that “soda” is urban and suburban while “pop”
is rural.

The politics and social implications of language variation

English is the first global language, and its variations are an
incitement to study. But the various word choices that people make

(or make unconsciously) can have social consequences in both the
small and the large scale: Some variations may be neutral, but

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