[isoskeles]

I lived in Florida for a long time, and the only people I remember who didn’t say “The 95” etc. were news anchors. So I always take these discussions with a grain of salt, as I do not think CA is the only place where people talk like this, and I also don’t even believe there are any regional norms about it most of the time. I assume people just repeat something they read in an article about this phenomenon.

But I would be interested to see something well-researched on the topic.

[djrogers]

No need for research, anyone who moved from Southern California to Northern California can tell you about this very distinct difference in speech patterns.