Illinois Accents (Chicago, Pittsburg, Dix: vs, oil, land)

[GoHogsGo]

Chicago, Midstate IL until about Springfield=Newscasters
Northwestern IL=Mix between MinneSOta, newscasters, and wis-CAHN-sin accents
Southern IL=more southern style accent.

[mattrnyc]

I know that most people in and around Chicagoland drink "pop." Once in an office building in Chicago, I was given directions to a meeting room: "Go down the hall and turn left after the pop machine."

While traveling through Mount Vernon IL, I have been asked in a restaurant if I'd like "a little more sodie?"

Further south, around Carbondale, I have been asked if I'd like "another Coke" in a restaurant that serves Pepsi products.

It's interesting how not only the accent changes from north to south in Illinois.

[Juice13610]

I lived 15 minutes to Marion and 20 minutes to Mt Vernon for 22 years and did 2 years in SIU at Carbondale (felt like prison, so I call it "doing" 2 years).

Someone asking if you wanted more sodie was probably just someone being sickeningly delightful. Otherwise I have never heard anyone say that to someone over the age of 8

As far as being asked if you want more Coke, thats something else that has never happened to me. I have heard of that happening a lot in the south (not southern Illinois, but the real south) to the point where Coke executives were driving through and suing people asking.

[j33]

I would think that the Coke executives would like that particular usage

[Juice13610]

No, they don't like customers thinking that the Pepsi they are drinking is Coke, especially if they don't like the Pepsi. Just like someone looking for a Mercedes is not going to appreciate being told their 89 Honda is a Mercedes.

[j33]

I can't imagine that a Coke executive would have any luck whatsoever suing someone for what accounts to be local dialect. Kleenex could not sue anyone for the fact that it is commonly used to mean 'tissue' any more than Coke could sue anyone for the fact that in the south it is commonly used to mean soda. Now if a company wrote 'Coke' or 'Kleenex' when they meant 'soda' or 'tissue' then that is another issue entirely, but one cannot be sued for speaking local dialect.

[Juice13610]

j33, you might be right, but I think overall that is up to the courts, don't you? So I would not say "one cannot be sued." Especially if you live in Canada, you couldn't possibly know how terribly litigous the US is.

And you're right, but its kind of like saying "Go Xerox this for me." Xerox is a brand, not an action, but xerox is so popular, to the company's dismay it has made it in to the dictionary

[j33]

I don't live in Canada I live in Chicago, my 'location' is a reference to a recent Simpson's episode in which Burns referred to Chicago as 'the Miami of Canada"'

[GraniteStater]

"Jaaahn, go owtside and pick up thaat larrge braanch that is near the oopening to the garage!"

That would be an example of the northern cities shift accent that is common in areas of Wisconsin, northern Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota etc.

[Juice13610]

That looks more like how my cousins talk in Boston.