The Answer to the Linguistic Problem is the Same as the Answer to the Political Problem
I mentioned the words "snowmobile" and "snowmachine" to my upstate NY grandfather. He said that snow machines were what the ski slopes used when nothing fell from the sky, the vehicles are called snowmobiles. In fact, this seems to be the consensus usage in the northern band of the US, with predictable intrusions by the preferred Canadian term ("ski-doo") and one big regional exception: Alaska.
In Alaska, apparently, saying "snowmobile" marks you as an outsider, from the lower 48, and presumably something of a junketeer. Alaska, however, is also the home of Sarah Palin, who has recently made performative hostility to outsiders a key mark of "real americans." Ever the lover of authenticity, she says "snowmachine" to describe her husband's preferred sport vehicle, and cheerfully chastises anyone who, like my grandfather, betrays their citified intellectualism by using That Other Word. In keeping with the trend whereby conservatives adopt a rural, working class brand identity (listen to right-ish news anchors droppin' their final G's, for instance) you now hear plenty of people in the lower 48 say snowmachine.
So I looked it up. As it turns out on this thread actual aficionados of riding around on the things tend to use a third term- sled. In fact, this word seems to span all the way from the Adirondacks to the Bering sea (well, except maybe Canada) without ever mis-scanning. So possibly, Palin has miscalibrated her image. If she actually wanted to pander to the people she claims to be one of, rather than the people she wants to impress with her authenticity, she would say "sled." Todd Palin is a champion sledder.
Just one more example of how the new right is not actually the demographic it claims to be, and is in fact every bit as intimidated by that demographic as the left. Throw this in the same bag as Levi Johnston's assertion that Palin m&eacu;re is in fact a terrible hunter, who can barely handle a gun. As one commentator put it, Johnston may be a political and interpersonal idiot, but he does know shooting...
A
In Alaska, apparently, saying "snowmobile" marks you as an outsider, from the lower 48, and presumably something of a junketeer. Alaska, however, is also the home of Sarah Palin, who has recently made performative hostility to outsiders a key mark of "real americans." Ever the lover of authenticity, she says "snowmachine" to describe her husband's preferred sport vehicle, and cheerfully chastises anyone who, like my grandfather, betrays their citified intellectualism by using That Other Word. In keeping with the trend whereby conservatives adopt a rural, working class brand identity (listen to right-ish news anchors droppin' their final G's, for instance) you now hear plenty of people in the lower 48 say snowmachine.
So I looked it up. As it turns out on this thread actual aficionados of riding around on the things tend to use a third term- sled. In fact, this word seems to span all the way from the Adirondacks to the Bering sea (well, except maybe Canada) without ever mis-scanning. So possibly, Palin has miscalibrated her image. If she actually wanted to pander to the people she claims to be one of, rather than the people she wants to impress with her authenticity, she would say "sled." Todd Palin is a champion sledder.
Just one more example of how the new right is not actually the demographic it claims to be, and is in fact every bit as intimidated by that demographic as the left. Throw this in the same bag as Levi Johnston's assertion that Palin m&eacu;re is in fact a terrible hunter, who can barely handle a gun. As one commentator put it, Johnston may be a political and interpersonal idiot, but he does know shooting...
A