COKE in the S outh

[Dennis R. Preston]

Ron,

Of course it doesn't, but other forms of intellectual curiosity are
permitted on this list.

dInIs

>Of course, how one says 'soft drink' in Polish does not tell us a thing about
>the current state of the morpheme COKE in the English language in America
>(where it has a number of meanings, by the way, that are not
>associated with soft
>drinks).
>
>In a message dated 3/4/05 10:05:17 AM, preston at MSU.EDU writes:
>
>
>>  In the early days of the introduction of tooth-destroying US
>>  sofdranks into then-Communist Eastern Europe, Coke carved out a place
>>  for itself in Warsaw, but Krakow went for Pepsi. (Poznan also had
>>  Coke, but I'm not sure of the rest of the national distribution;
>>  seems to me that Gdansk-Gdynia-Sopot was also Coke territory.)
>>
>>  Since they were "Western," these sofdranks had a much higher status
>>  than in the US. If you asked for one in even a pretty fancy place, it
>>  was not brought in a chilled glass (with throat-destroying ice,
>>  according to local belief), but the bottle itself was prominently
>>  displayed on the table, so that envious nearby diners could se what a
>>  high-roller you were. (Much more clout than a bottle of Russian
>>  champagne, delicious but cheap - and, of course, from the BAD PLACE!)
>>
>>  In those days in Krakow, however, where I had on occasion to order
>>  for others, I asked for a "Coke" (I actually said "Coca-Cola") and
>>  was served Pepsi without hesitation, often by a waiter in a tux, and
>>  once with the bottle lovingly wrapped in a white napkin. I shoulda
>>  asked what year it was.
>>
>>  What other evidence do we have of non-US use of Coke (or Coca-Cola)
>>  as a generic?
>>
>>  dInIs
>>
>>
>>  >From:    RonButters at AOL.COM
>>  >: In a message dated 3/2/05 9:46:09 PM, stalker at MSU.EDU writes:
>>  >
>>  >:: I like this. Southerners, who use Coke generically,(note those
>>  >:: non-restrictive clause commas) are aware of the legal sense of the
>>  >:: term and are rejecting it. Does this correlate with the "save your
>>  >:: Dixie cups; the South will rise again syndrome?
>>  >
>>  ><snip>
>>  >
>>  >: JIm's nonrestrictive clause commas are wrong, but it would be
>>  >: difficult to maintain that the shorthand use of "cokes" by SOME
>>  >: Southerners sometimes borders on the generic. In my experience after
>>  >: living nearly 40 years in North Carolina (I haven't checked this
>>  >: against any empirical data), there are SOME people who use
>>  >: "cokes" (almost always in the plural) to refer to soft drinks
>>  >: in general, though they are fading out in areas where the large number
>>  >: of immigrants from the North are often confused by such utterances as,
>>  >: "What kind of cokes do y'all have?" Most frequently, it seems to me,
>>  >: there use is plural.
>>  >
>>  ><snip for bandwidth>
>>  >
>>  >: ...Sometimes words do indeed undergo what the
>>  >: lawyers call GENERICIDE, and maybe COKE has done this for some
>>  >: people: COKE(S) may have some kind of double-meaning for some people,
>>  >: i.e., a dictionary that properly describes COKE for some Southerners
>>  >: might should have entry #1 for the trademark status and #2 for the
>>  >: generic use. But such people are a decided minority in the US, and I
>>  >: suspect that they are dying out in the face of dialect mixture and,
>>  >: of course, modern advertising...
>>  >
>>  >Agreed that the nonrestrictive clause bit was wrong (very wrong, in fact,
>>  >IMObservation), but, that said...
>>  >
>>  >I'm not so sure that the use of COKE you discuss is dying out, since *i*'m
>>  >one of these people (with a meaning #1 for COKE [note the singular!] of
>>  >'Coca-Cola' and a meaning #2 of 'sweetened carbonated beverage'), and i'm
>>  >only 34. I'm from Southern Maryland, pretty much as far north as you can
>>  get
>>  >and still hear (semi-?)generic COKE (yes, that's COKE in the singular), and
>>  >in my fieldwork there, you get occasional COKE as a generic from
>>  respondents
>>  >of all ages.
>>  >
>>  >It might be worthwhile looking at the possible parallel of PEPSI as,
>  > >perhaps, a generic for sweetened carbonated beverages in parts
>of Idaho and
>>  >(i think) Montana, and maybe elsewhere.
>>  >
>>  ><snip>
>>  >
>>  >David Bowie                                         http://pmpkn.net/lx
>>  >     Jeanne's Two Laws of Chocolate: If there is no chocolate in the
>>  >     house, there is too little; some must be purchased. If there is
>>  >     chocolate in the house, there is too much; it must be consumed.
>>
>>
>>  --
>>  Dennis R. Preston
>>  University Distinguished Professor
>>  Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
>>          Asian and African Languages
>>  Wells Hall A-740
>>  Michigan State University
>>  East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
>>  Office: (517) 353-0740
>>  Fax: (517) 432-2736
>>
>>


--
Dennis R. Preston
University Distinguished Professor
Department of Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic,
        Asian and African Languages
Wells Hall A-740
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office: (517) 353-0740
Fax: (517) 432-2736