Soft Drinks Aren’t Called “Pop”
Posted by Skrud at Friday, May 9th 2008 at 4:08pm
I was in Ottawa for two days this week to find an apartment. The mission was successful, largely thanks to Rosa from Dada Relocation who had an entire day of apartment-visiting planned for my mom, my sister and I. We saw at least 12 different apartments and got driven all over the city. I settled on a great place half a block from Bank Street and a block away from Somerset. It reminds me a lot of the Plateau Mont-Royal in Montreal and is surrounded by pubs, bars and restaurants. I think I’ll like it there.
One thing that drove me absolutely mad is the fact that people in Ottawa keep referring to soft drinks as “pop”. I thought it was just me being crazy, but my mom and sister were completely baffled by it, too. Every time someone mentioned “pop” we had to think for a split second about wtf they were talking about. I mentioned this on twitter and was sent to a survey about the Pop vs. Soda Controversy. As you can see, the “pop” scourge is especially predominant around the East-Central United States and most populated areas of Canada.
In Quebec, we typically call the drinks by their brand name (like “Coke”, or “Pepsi”, or “7-Up”) and use “soft drink” (or “boisson gazeuse”) as a generic term. The Pop vs. Soda page confirmed this. You occasionally hear people say “soda”, but almost never pop. It serves as a marker for people who come from out-of-province. I wonder if this is in part because of the great Pepsi vs. Coke Controversy, since <sweeping generalization>francophones typically prefer Pepsi while anglophones prefer Coca-Cola</sweeping generalization>. Therefore, it’s necessary to differentiate competing brands of soft drink by referring to them by their brand name instead of a generic term. Our generic term preference for “soft drink” in English is probably influenced by the fact that the French term is “boisson gazeuse” and sometimes just “liqueur”. I imagine that in translating from one to the other, “soft drink” seems much closer than “soda” or “pop”. It also sounds better than “gaseous drink”. (Although the term “liqueur douce” does exist, it’s rarely used.)
Idle speculation aside, I don’t think I could ever get used to “pop”. I’ll always end up doing a double-take and try to figure out what people are talking about. I think I’ll just place all my beverage orders in French to avoid the controversy altogether… at least until someone wages a war between “boisson gazeuse” and “liqueur”.
I also know the terms liquid candy or fizzy.
Here in england we refer to soft drinks as pop. It’s to do with the popping bubbles in it, at least, I’ve always assumed.
“Would you like some pop?” “Sure, got any Coke?”