Northwest dialect-creaky voice

[Dale Coye]

The Seattle-Post Intelligencer article on NW dialect makes the claim that
creaky voice is used in the NW to compensate for a lost vowel !  (The cot-caught
merger).   I've been dealing with creaky voice in my classes for years when
oral presentations are given and among actors in NJ.  I never thought of it as
being a regional feature, but I do think it's more common among women, though
not limited to them. Does anyone know more about this?  I heard Natalie Portman
on Live at the Actor's Studio and in the movie Garden State, and she speaks
this way a lot.

Dale Coye
Wilton,NH