Bubbler vs Drinking Fountain? Which is actually right?

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A conflict that has plagued many midwesterners for years and years. Do we drink from a Bubbler, or do we drink from a Drinking Fountain. This will continue to conflict us, until today!

Read below and see where you fit

Why it is only Drinking Fountain

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The rest of the country uses it, it should be commonplace!
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I’ve lived in Wisconsin for all my life and never have I ever heard the term bubbler till I went to college. Where I lived, we always used the word drinking fountain, as it’s a fountain in which you can get a drink from. It’s simple and self-explanatory. A bubbler makes no sense. Is it a bubble machine? Why would they put something that makes bubbles in a hospital or a factory? People from Eastern Wisconsin often say that the original drinking fountain bubbles up, and I can give them that sure. But if it bubbled up now, it would sound like it spews hot water. Overall, it’s a confusing and outdated word, and the rest of the US doesn’t even know what the word even is. Others also say that it makes Wisconsin unique. Yea? We’re also the cheese capital of the world, so I’m pretty sure that would make us unique as well. Why should our uniqueness come from a simple word rather than our achievements in the cheese and dairy industry? With all of that I say we should take the word bubbler out of our dictionaries and use drinking fountain.




Bubbler shows our uniqueness!
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We show history through our words, Bubbler is history!
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As a Wisconsin native, I grew up asking to go to a “bubbler” whenever I wanted to go and get a drink. There was never a problem with this where I lived, until I went out of state and heard the term “drinking fountain”. I was shocked by the people who demanded that I should use their word, instead of my own. However, for people in Wisconsin, a bubbler is the correct word. It shows the history of our state, as the infamous Kohler company designed their brand of “drinking fountain” called a bubbler. It was unique to them, and while their design has ultimately changed over time, the name still stayed, and it allowed every Wisconsinite to share a bit of its history just through speech. Not only that, but dialects are everywhere, and the Wisconsin dialect isn’t “wrong”, rather our normal. Would you yell at a southern person, making them say you all instead of y’all? Of course not! That would be considered rude, because it’s making fun of their dialect of English. What would the difference be over the simple name of a machine in which we can get a drink? I say, rather than saying that bubbler is wrong, simply agree that our way of speaking may be different. But for us and our history, it will always remain, and therefore always be correct.








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