Florida, of course, is not so much a culturally unified state as it is a patchwork of distinct regions with their own mannerisms and idiosyncrasies.
A series of maps taken from an North Carolina State University survey have been making the Internet rounds this week. They map out what parts of the country say "soda" or "pop," or pronounce caramel with two syllable or three.
Sure, it's interesting on a national level, but perhaps no state is divided in its speech more than Florida. In fact, South Florida speaks very little like our fellow Florida citizens to the north. Seriously, we don't even pronounce Florida the same way.
When it comes to using "Y'all" or "You Guys," South Florida is the only place in the state that agrees with the rest of the country that y'all is some southern nonsense.
I usually just call it "mayo," but apparently the three-syllable pronunciation is more prominent in SoFla than NoFla
The New York City area appears to be the biggest three-syllable partisans in the country, and it's not the only time we agree with NYCers more than we do the people of, say, Tampa.
Like the Northeast and California, we call it "soda" down here, but Panhandlers prefer "Coke," like most of the South.
The Northeast and South Florida are the only areas that strongly prefer the term "sneakers."
When it comes to those times when rain falls but the sun is out, North Florida (and most of the nation) doesn't know what exactly to call them. They're called sunshowers. End of debate.
When asked which city the term "The City" refers to, South Floridians tend to think of NYC, more than almost any other region of the country except for the area around NYC.
For a brief time when people asked me where I lived while I was out on Miami Beach I just said "The City," meaning the city of Miami. It just confused people. So much for City of Miami pride.
The Panhandle apparently is not as uniform in the pronunciation of "Florida" as the rest of Florida.
When it comes to pronouncing the "c" in "grocery," South Florida is kind of gross.
South Florida doesn't really know what a "roly poly" is and can't really seem to agree on any name for these things.
Do we even have them down here?
One of the few things all Floridians agree with is what you call a long sandwich with cold cuts.
It's a sub obviously. Sure, it's the preferred term in most of the nation, but most other states have some lighter red areas of dispute. That's probably because Publix doesn't sell hoagies. They don't sell heroes. They sell subs. God bless Publix, one of the few things that united this unholy state.
You can see all 122 maps here. While not all of them are dramatic, a lot still show some more subtle differences between South and North Florida. You can also look up the exact rates at which terms and pronunciations are used in Miami, Miami Beach an Hialeah.
Sadly the survey did not ask if you pronounce "supposedly" as "supposebly" or if "irregardeless" is an actual word.
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