Hallucinating distinctions (was New Jersey Dialects)

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 03:36 PM 10/20/2004, you wrote:
>My students in Ohio did a field project and found "davenport," at least
>in their sample (which admittedly was small), to very age graded (sorry,
>Wilson!)  That is, mainly people over about 50 used it at all.  I
>suspect the same is true here, though I don't think my students have
>done that project here yet.
>
>And I also believe it was a brand name first.
>
>FWIW my grandmother used it all the time-- she was in her 60's at the
>time, in the 1960's in western PA
>
>But for me, it's a couch (with the appropriate Pittsburgh twang of
>course : )
>
>Patti Kurtz

My parents said 'davenport' too, as did I as a child.  Now I have a 'sofa',
but mainly because it's a sofa bed (I've never heard of a couch
bed).  Otherwise, I don't think I'd prefer one over the other--though our
own intuitions about such things are notoriously flawed.

Out of curiosity though, what's a "Pittsburgh twang"?  Can you put it in
IPA (or our listserv substitute system for IPA)?  I think I know what you
mean, but I want a native speaker's take on this!