I don’t think anyone is suggesting anyone spells it “strown,” are they? (Except as an occasional mistake prompted by their US South pronunciation). Or did I misunderstand this?
I guess that’s why I use a spell checker. English spelling is often not what it sounds.
Very interesting–here in WNC, “strewn,” and never that I remember heard “strown.” Perhaps more evidence that NC is only nominally southern.
I forgot to mention that I am from Southern Oregon, where a lot of the generic southern dialect lives strongly. I say strewn I’m pretty sure, but strown does not sound wrong to me.
Strewn. Raised in New Zealand.
Further to mine as above: I mentioned this matter yesterday, to a pair of relatives of mine – who both grew up in the southern half of England. They both use the word in speech, and pronounce it “strewn”. I continue to opine that if I were to speak the word “in earnest” at all, I would say “strown”.
So strown would be the Scotch in us, huh. We also say strow, as in “Be sure to strow some feed over there, too.” It’s used a lot; I’ve rarely heard “scatter.” (That’s what you do to get the cats out of the house. :p)
But we don’t identify as Southern so much as “country.” The easiest distinction I can think of is that Southerners lose their "r"s while we pronounce it hard, like pirates.
This is a good thread. I didn’t know those terms were archaic.
Grew up in Alabama. I pronounce it “strown” but spell it “strewn”.
I’ve been singing Palm Sunday music today, replete with strewing of palms in Jesus’ path. One British anthem actually spells the word “strown.” I grew up down South, and all my Mississippi and Alabama relations pronounce “strew” to rhyme with “sew” (that would be “stro” and “so”). But nobody here in Virginia says it that way.
The verb is strew-strewed-strewn but some people might think it’s strow-strew-strown through mistaken association with throw-threw-thrown. Happens all the time (snuck as the past of sneak, for example).
I grew up in southeastern Kentucky, and it was pronounced “strown.” Probably not everyone pronounced it that way, but most of the elderly, and some of the younger people did. I always thought “strown” had been the original pronunciation, and changed over the years. Glad to know I am not the only person in the world who says strow and strown.