Language usage questionnaire

[mollyringle]

There have been requests for me to post more about linguistics (no, seriously; there have), so, here are my usage-questions for you. There are no right answers in usage questions; I'm just curious. And, please, in order for this to be scientific (hah), let me know what variety of English you speak (i.e., where you learned to speak English - and try to be more specific than "America" if you wish to be useful).

1. The past tense of "dive" is:
a. dived
b. dove

2. Splitting an infinitive is:
a. Wrong wrong wrong! Bad bad bad!
b. Fine, if it makes the sentence flow better.
c. What the hell does "splitting an infinitive" mean?

3. For me (i.e., you) there is a difference in pronunciation between "which" and "witch"; and between "Wales" and "whales": True or False?

4. I sometimes pronounce the word "address" with the accent on the first syllable (AD-dress): True or False?

5. Pepsi, 7-Up, Orange Crush, root beer: collectively these are all called:
a. soda
b. pop
c. Coke
d. other (write-in)

6. Just for fun: the shibboleth question: give me the name of a town/locality near you that no outsiders can pronounce right, and try to tell us how it's really pronounced. My example: Willamette, in Oregon (name of a river among other things), is pronounced with the stress on the LAM, not the WILL. Saying WILL-a-met is the sure mark of an outsider.

Comments

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

BTW, we don't even have root beer. What is it?

[mollyringle.livejournal.com]

Not sure if it goes by another name over there... It's a non-alcoholic fizzy drink, originally flavored with some specific kind of root, probably artifically flavored for the most part, these days; sweet in taste (duh); dark brown in color (same color as Coke); gets a lot more foam on top than the average soft drink. Very good with a scoop of vanilla ice cream dropped into it. I don't think it has caffeine, but I might be mistaken.

Root beer

[(Anonymous)]

Sassafrass roots, I think.

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

Ah, thank you. It doesn't sound familiar, although we do have ginger beer, which is a similar sort of premise. I used to love Coke floats when I was a kid - icecream and coke - though whether I would now is another matter.

[poo-head.livejournal.com]

Is root beer what I've heard called Sarsparilla?