n. — Quebec, Food & Drink
any carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverage (e.g. Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, ginger ale).
Type: 5. Frequency — In Montreal and the rest of Quebec, soft drink is the main term used for 'carbonated beverages', especially amongst Quebecers who were born and raised in the province (see Chambers and Heisler 1999:40-43 for a case study from the City of Quebec). Montreal is one of the most lexically distinct regions in mainland Canada, due to the isolation of its English-speaking community from the rest of English-speaking Canada (Boberg 2005:36). In other provinces the term pop is more common in reference to carbonated beverages, although soft drink does have some currency in Manitoba, eastern Ontario and Newfoundland (see Boberg 2010: 172-173).
One French term used in Quebec for a 'carbonated beverage' is liqueur douce, which is a direct translation of the term soft drink. It is likely that liqueur douce and soft drink reinforced one another.
The term is included in COD-2, ITP Nelson, Gage-5 and DAE and AHD-5, but marked in none as a Quebec term.