Would some kind soul with access to the dialect chart clue me in on how the pronunciations of the word lever are distributed in US English? I was under the impression that "leaver" was a strictly British pronunciation, and that the only context in which Americans don't say "levver" is in the name of the company that makes Lifebuoy soap.
Something in excess of half a century ago I recall being appalled by people (US) saying LEE-ver. I don't think I had traveled farther than a couple of hundred miles in any direction from my point of origin in the Finger Lakes region of New York. That's as close to a map as I can provide.
It was LEE-ver in Philadelphia, where I grew up. But LEH-veridj (never LEE-veridj). I would be interested in a distribution map of both words lever and leverage.
I hear it both ways and I probably use it both ways depending on where I am. I have a sense that around here LEE-ver is more of a country way to say it. But, like Glenn, I never hear LEE-veridj.
In Wisconsin where I grew up it was always "LEHver" and "LEHverage." The first time I heard "LEEver" was watching a BBS show on the local PBS channel. Same place I first heard "MEEthane." So I always figured it was just a British English thing. Never heard "LEEverage" anywhere.