11 June 2013

The crayfish / crawfish / crawdad war

Business Insider features this heat map of what people call crayfish in the United States. It’s all very confusing.


First, the question asks what people call “miniature lobsters”. I’m not sure that’s helpful. Do you have any idea how many kinds of crustaceans are called “lobsters”? There are clawed lobsters, spiny lobsters, slipper lobsters, squat lobsters...

Second, I’m particularly puzzled by people use “crawdad.” Not that they do, but that there are two disconnected blobs of green. I would have expected more continuity.

Maybe Americans should follow the lead of the Australians and call them all “yabbies.”

Hat tip to P.Z. Myers.

External links

22 Maps That Show How Americans Speak English Totally Differently From Each Other
It’s “crawdads”!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Perhaps an over-reach, but do you think there's any chance that the disjunct blobs of "crawdad" between the lower Midwest and rural California/Oregon represents any remnant of the Dust Bowl migration west (Okies and Arkies going to California)?