Examples of words that have the same or different meaning in the East and West coasts of the U.S?

Answer 1

I am from the Northwest and I now live in Oklahoma. People say soda up there, and pop down here. It is weird....

Answer 2

I don't know if this helps, but I'm from Detroit, and when I pronounce the word "ambulance", I kind of put an emphasis or an accent on the word. Like AM-ba-LANCE. When my husband, who is from San Jose, California says it, it sounds like AM-byu-lance. He thinks I have an accent. Anyway what I'm trying to say is maybe you should just limit your search to meanings of words. Perhaps you'd get better results exploring the different ways people pronounce words.

Answer 3

That's the example I was thinking of -- Soda v. Pop (some people or places also say cola)

However, in Ohio we was buh-ret (for barrette -- like something you put in your hair) and people in Michigan and Illinois (at least) say bar-et. Another Ohio thing is interstate whereas I've noticed more people in north Ohio/Michigan say expressway.

My friends make fun of me because I say I'm going to the grocery store and they say they're going to the grocery (but some of that's just where you are in the state).

Answer 4

When I was growing up in Arkansas, people used to call a car's trunk the turtle hull. A turtle hull is an empty turtle shell. I guess the trunk lid of those old, rounded cars of the forties reminded them of a turtle's shell.

Answer 5

West coast: freeway.
Southeast: interstate or super-highway.

Southwest (and UK) : kiosk
elsewhere: booth

West coast: Cardinal
Southeast: Redbird. (OK cardinal is catching on here. it depends on age and how "country" someone is.

You want more give me a while. but US v UK v AU is even more interesting.