"Strew, strewed, strewn"

[Wilson Gray]

On Oct 4, 2004, at 11:05 AM, Beverly Flanigan wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Beverly Flanigan <flanigan at OHIOU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "Strew, strewed, strewn"
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> Nice!  This reminds me of "shine, shone, shone," where "shone" is
> pronounced by me as [Son] but by many others as [SOn], or maybe [San]

Welcome to St. Louis, Bev! Actually, there's a dialect split. Some
people in St. Louis say [Son] and others say [SOn/San]. Still others
drop back five yards and punt by using "shined." But, to me, that's way
weirder than [SOn/San], unless it's being used transitively, as in
"shined his shoes."

-Wilson

> ?  The
> open oh is used in Britain too, right?  Any early poetic evidence of a
> rhyme, say, with "lawn," Sean?  (That's a rhyme for me, btw.)
>
> At 09:36 PM 10/3/2004, you wrote:
>> <<Does "strew, strewed, strewn" rhyme with "sew, sewed, sewn," i.e.,
>> "stro, strode, strone," outside of black East Texas?>>
>>
>> It usta did.
>>
>>     Now hath Flora robbed her bow'rs
>>     To befriend this place with flow'rs.
>>     Strow about, strow about--skies rained never kindlier show'rs.
>> (Thomas Campion--c. 1607)
>>
>> OED says "strow" is arch. and dial.  Round the May Pole here in Upper
>> Darbyshire, East Pennsylvania*, c. 2004, we'uns pronounce it
>> strew-strewed-strewn, as in boo-booed-boon.
>>
>> *I always thought East anything (except E. Germany) so cool. As a
>> Washington, D.C., native, I used to go sailing on the "Eastern
>> Shore", but
>> I missed being "born and raised in East Virginia" by just a couple
>> dozen
>> miles.  Maybe that's why I married a woman who knew how to make Jim
>> Malone's genuine, original, one-and-only, down-home, red-hot, East
>> Texas
>> Bull's Death chili.
>>
>> Seán Fitzpatrick
>> Live fast, die young . . . God, what else did I forget?
>> http://www.logomachon.blogspot.com/
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Wilson Gray
>> Sent: Saturday, 02 October, 2004 16:33
>> Subject: "Strew, strewed, strewn"
>>
>>
>> Does "strew, strewed, strewn" rhyme with "sew, sewed, sewn," i.e
>> "stro,
>> strode, strone," outside of black East Texas?
>>
>> -Wilson Gray
>