"Divan"

[Wilson Gray]

On Tue, Nov 9, 2010 at 1:11 PM, Paul Johnston <paul.johnston at wmich.edu> wrote:
> My grandmother (born 1879, NYC) used "DYE-van" interchangeably with davenport to designate the couch. Â My mom (b. 1904) used the word occasionally, but I've never heard anyone younger use it. Â My students laugh at me when I mention this.
>

Now that you mention it, Paul, I'm reminded that, down home in Texas,
some people - somebody possibly closely related to those whereof Jon's
grandmother spoke ;-) - used DYE-van or "davenport." *We*, OTOH, have
always used only "couch."

Day after tomorrow, my eldest living relative who actually grew up in
Marshall, TX - as opposed to just happening to have been born there -
turns 94. I've really got to try to find out why our family dialect
was so distinct from that of the local some-people, before it's too
late.

Some weird form of snobbism, no doubt. I recall my grandmother mocking
a neighbor, Mr. Green, because he had greeted her with, "Hi Y'ALL?"
(nope, *not* an instance of _y'all_ used in the singular; by "y'all,"
he meant my grandmother as representing our household and not as an
individual) and not with "How ah YOU-all?" And I've never been under
the impression that "speedometer" is pronounced "SPEED-oh-meter' nor
did I ever co-sign the local pronunciation of "Catholic (Church)" as
"COW-flick (Choich)."

Just heard Jesse Jackson speaking of the three [ar at z]. Takes me back.
--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"––a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
–Mark Twain

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