reservoir.

[Peter A. McGraw]

If "reservor" has a geographic area, then it must also include Southern
California, because that's where I learned the word.  It was what people
called a body of water contained by a big wall built against a hillside
above La Jolla.
In the Northwest we have a big chain of reservoirs, but we just call them
the "Columbia River."

Peter Mc.

--On Tuesday, April 17, 2001 7:30 AM -0400 "Dennis R. Preston"
<preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU> wrote:

> Not unless the Pacific Northwest includes Louisville, KY.
>
> dInIs
>
>
>
>> Peter, Anne and I agree, so it must have something to do with the Pacific
>> Northwest. "Reservor" is what I grew up with.
>>
>> Allen
>> maberry at u.washington.edu
>>
>> On Mon, 16 Apr 2001, ANNE V. GILBERT wrote:
>>
>>>  Peter:
>>>
>>>  > This discussion amazes me, because I haven't yet heard my
>>>  > pronunciation mentioned: "reservor."  At least that's how I learned
>>>  > it as a child.  I
>>>  may
>>>  > have modified it as an adult after I had learned some French, because
>>>  > "reservwar" sounds right, too, and I'm not sure which I actually use
>>>  > nowadays.  Certainly not "reservwah," which definitely sounds
>>>  > affected, at least from speakers of rhotic dialects.
>>>  >
>>>  > I think "reservor" is the pronunciation I've heard in the humorous
>>>  > useage in which the uneducated American renders "au revoir" as "ah
>>>  > reservor."
>>>
>>>  Holy moly!  "Reservor" is what I always heard as a child and when I was
>>>  growing up.  Then some people I knew who wanted to seem
>>>  educated(although I knew they'd come from a poor background), and
>>>  listened to certain announcers on NPR  a lot, kept talking about
>>>  "reservwah", although I knew perfectly well they didn't know any
>>>  French.  It sounded weird to me.  But maybe not to other people in
>>>  other parts of the country. . . .
>>>  Anne G
>>>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> Department of Linguistics and Languages
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
> preston at pilot.msu.edu
> Office: (517)353-0740
> Fax: (517)432-2736



****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu