Bodega v. Mercado and Tienda

[Kathleen Miller]

Reading The Times the other day I came to the conclusion that much of the
language it uses is New York specific (or at least seems that way to me).

According to a headline, and about 20 times in the article itself, there
was a shooting at a bodega.

Now, bodega to me is a place to buy some nice Spanish wine or its a bar
where you can drink it. Yet the Times (and Websters) have it as a hispanic
grocery store.

Having done half of high school and all of college in Texas, a corner
grocery store catering to Hispanics would, to me, be a "mercado" or a "tienda."

Neither, mercado nor bodega are in DARE. OED only has the wine store
definition, M-W has both wine store and grocery store. As does my Spanish
dictionary - but it limits the grocery store definition to Central America,
and specifically mentions Peru and Venezuela.

Question then, does bodega make it into the New York's lexicon and the
pages of the New York Times because the majority of Spanish-speaking
immigrants are from Peru and Venezuela (Central America)? I would guess,
therefore, that bodega is not the Mexican word for "grocer's" or that's
what we'd call it in Texas.

Has there ever been a study or comparison of what things are called in
different regions due to immigrant influence?

Kathleen E. Miller
Research Assistant to William Safire
The New York Times