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

Question

the front room? How come Chicago is mainly the only place where the people say these different phrases?

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

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.

Answer 4

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?

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

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

Answer 7

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.

Answer 8

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!

Answer 9

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.

Answer 10

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.