If you live or work in America, what do you call a fizzy drink you buy during your lunch break? Is it soda? Maybe it’s pop? Or perhaps it’s a soft drink, or a coke (even if it’s not actually Coca Cola)?
Eight months ago the Guardian ran a story on dialect from across the UK using the British Library’s Evolving English WordBank as examples of the diversity of words and terms used in different parts of the country.
As a follow up we gave our readers the last word, asking them to contribute the dialect words they use . We received 1,200 words and phrases in response, 920 of which were unique entries. Most of those, the British Library found to be distinct dialect words.
Now we’d like to hear about the unusual words and phrases Americans use. Whether you push a cart or a buggy around a store, or drink from a fountain or a bubbler at school we want to hear about the words synonymous with your hometown; the one you used one day in the office only to have everyone look at you blankly; or the phrase that, in your area or family, is commonplace but which you have never heard outside that context.
