Our Mistress thinks she speaks English. She\u2019s trying to learn German, but that\u2019s another story. Anyway, she used a sentence in her writing and when he read it our Master put a big ? next to it. She asked him to explain what the problem was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not making any sense. That\u2019s a made up word.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat do you mean \u2018that\u2019s a made up word\u2019 is in common use,\u201d was her reply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn your head, maybe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So she looked the word up in the dictionary and then proudly told him it was there. It meant exactly what she thought it did and there was nothing wrong with her sentence\u2026 then she read the next line in the dictionary entry and she was distraught. Apparently the word is only in common use in the East Midlands of England where she comes from. She was distraught, it turned out that the word \u2018puthering\u2019 which she thinks perfectly describes when a fire is all smoke and very little flame, is not one that she could use for a character not born in the area she is from. She went on to tell me that being \u2018mardy\u2019 means you are in a bad mood, a \u2018croggie\u2019 is when you hitch a ride on the crossbar of someone\u2019s bicycle and a \u2018thrall\u2019 is the stone ledge above the floor in a pantry. It turns out she doesn\u2019t speak English quite as much as she thought she did, but a local variant of the language that you\u2019d have thought didn\u2019t exist in this day and age. She wondered if I could get the word \u2018puther\u2019 into common use as she likes it so much and doesn\u2019t want it to disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other paw, I\u2019m thinking when she says something that I want to ignore of just saying later \u2018I\u2019m sorry, I didn\u2019t understand. You weren\u2019t speaking in English!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can find short stories to read at www.alfiedog.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Alfie\u2019s Diary \u2013 the Book as well as our other books are available HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"