DialectGuessr

18 maps · 50 states · 122 survey questions

The US dialect atlas

American English does not divide the way people assume. It is rarely north against south or coast against middle — it is three or four words holding separate ground, with borders that follow where people settled rather than where the state lines went. These are the questions where that shows up most sharply, mapped state by state.

Soda, Pop or Coke? The Map of How America Orders a Fizzy Drink

The most famous dialect divide in America, and a genuine three-way split rather than the usual coast-versus-middle. Soda leads in 23 states, pop in 17 and coke in 11 — and in the South, coke means any fizzy drink, so a waiter will ask which kind you want.

Alaska: soda 41.3%, pop 32.6%, coke 10.9%AKMaine: soda 86%, pop 5%, coke 1%MEVermont: soda 93.4%, pop 1.3%, coke 1.3%VTNew Hampshire: soda 73%, coke 2.7%, pop 1.8%NHWashington: pop 65.2%, soda 22.9%, coke 3.2%WAIdaho: pop 59.9%, soda 31.1%, coke 3%IDMontana: pop 76.5%, soda 16.6%, coke 1.1%MTNorth Dakota: pop 77.2%, soda 15.8%, coke 1.8%NDMinnesota: pop 80%, soda 14.6%, coke 2%MNIllinois: pop 51.2%, soda 34.5%, coke 6.4%ILWisconsin: soda 54.6%, pop 37.5%, coke 0.9%WIMichigan: pop 81.4%, soda 13.8%, coke 0.9%MINew York: soda 81.6%, pop 11.9%, coke 1.3%NYRhode Island: soda 93.8%, coke 2.1%, pop 1%RIMassachusetts: soda 75.6%, coke 2.8%, pop 1.7%MAOregon: pop 46.6%, soda 39%, coke 4.4%ORNevada: soda 63.1%, coke 15.4%, pop 7.7%NVWyoming: pop 68.1%, soda 23.2%, coke 2.9%WYSouth Dakota: pop 84.5%, soda 10.1%, coke 1.9%SDIowa: pop 79.9%, soda 14.3%, coke 1%IAIndiana: pop 40.3%, coke 26.8%, soda 19.1%INOhio: pop 70%, soda 18.8%, coke 4.1%OHPennsylvania: soda 73.5%, pop 20.3%, coke 1.6%PANew Jersey: soda 95.8%, coke 1.6%, pop 0.5%NJConnecticut: soda 95.3%, pop 1.6%, coke 1.6%CTCalifornia: soda 68.7%, coke 11.3%, pop 5.8%CAUtah: soda 45%, pop 33.8%, coke 7.5%UTColorado: pop 49%, soda 35.5%, coke 5%CONebraska: pop 75.5%, soda 16.2%, coke 2.4%NEMissouri: soda 45%, pop 36.5%, coke 11.5%MOKentucky: coke 43.8%, pop 16.2%, soda 15.8%KYWest Virginia: pop 49.2%, soda 29.2%, coke 11.7%WVVirginia: soda 60.9%, coke 19.5%, pop 4.9%VAMaryland: soda 81.9%, coke 8.9%, pop 2.4%MDDelaware: soda 95.5%, coke 2.3%, pop 0%DEArizona: soda 63.7%, pop 14%, coke 12.9%AZNew Mexico: coke 43.8%, soda 35.7%, pop 7.1%NMKansas: pop 55.8%, soda 22.9%, coke 13.5%KSArkansas: coke 54.9%, soda 25.6%, pop 6%ARTennessee: coke 62.3%, soda 12%, pop 3.4%TNNorth Carolina: soda 38.1%, coke 25.5%, pop 3.9%NCSouth Carolina: coke 44.1%, soda 35.3%, pop 1.5%SCWashington, D.C.: soda 68.3%, pop 6.1%, coke 4.9%DCOklahoma: coke 33.3%, pop 32.9%, soda 22.7%OKLouisiana: coke 59.2%, soda 12.7%, pop 3.5%LAMississippi: coke 73.7%, soda 7.9%, pop 6.1%MSAlabama: coke 61.8%, soda 18%, pop 1.8%ALGeorgia: coke 60.6%, soda 19.8%, pop 2%GAHawaii: soda 94.6%, pop 0%, coke 0%HITexas: coke 58.6%, soda 25.4%, pop 2.4%TXFlorida: soda 55.1%, coke 27.9%, pop 3.8%FL
  • soda leads 23 states
  • pop leads 17 states
  • coke leads 11 states
Each square is one state, placed roughly where it sits on the map and coloured by the answer that leads there. Survey question: “What is your generic term for a sweetened carbonated beverage?”

See the state-by-state numbers →

Every map

Where this comes from

Every map here is drawn from the Harvard Dialect Survey, collected by Bert Vaux and Scott Golder in 2002–2003. It asked 122 questions and recorded, per question, the share of respondents in each state giving each answer — a large self-selected sample rather than a census, and two decades old now.

DialectGuessr’s own survey is a separate thing: it asks a shorter set of questions of the whole English-speaking world rather than the United States, and it is still collecting. Taking the quiz is what adds to it.

Take the quiz →

Harvard Dialect Survey data used under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 licence: attribution and share-alike, non-commercial.