Mikael Parkvall has by googling mapped the different expressions on various blog sites and similar places where writers indicate their hometown.
For each hit, he has copied the location into an Excel file.
The map is based on a total of 3042 search results.
- It is ridiculously laborious and murderously boring, but quite a fun result, says Mikael Parkvall, who is a linguist at Stockholm University.
Unclear why people say "bob"
The reason why people say different is unclear.
But "Snowracer" is originally a registered trademark.
- I actually have no idea why it is called "bob" in most of Norrland, says Mikael Parkvall.
Mikael Parkvall does a new search once a month approximately, and updates the map as needed.
- There are some other variants as well, for example "steering sled", and some in Finland say "Stiga" after the manufacturer.