Hallucinating distinctions (was New Jersey Dialects)

[Patti J. Kurtz]

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

wilson.gray at RCN.COM wrote:

>---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM>
>Subject:      Re: Hallucinating distinctions (was New Jersey Dialects)
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>dInIs, I'm way disappointed in you, the way you're letting these
>Northerners define the field of discussion. Uh-oh. I may be pulling a
>PITS, not realizing that some item that I (formerly) used routinely is,
>in fact, a localism. In any case, I'm referring to the use of
>"davenport" in preference to either "couch" or "sofa." "Davenport" was
>the only term used in East Texas in my childhood, though locals
>understood both "sofa" and "couch." If I remember rightly, "davenport,"
>like "frigidaire," was originally a brand name. In this case, it was
>the brand name of a sofa or couch that could be pulled out into a bed.
>Currently, my conscious mind prefers "couch." but my fingers appear to
>like "sofa" better.
>
>-Wilson Gray
>
>
>

--

Dr. Patti J. Kurtz

Assistant Professor, English

Director of the Writing Center

Minot State University

Minot, ND 58707



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