Dear Reader
Rest assured that DELAFORD is still alive and growing on the writer's personal computer. Other postings will be available on Mary Maire's Twitter Page. Do keep in Touch! Just to reassure everyone that all is as Jane, I think, would approve...
An e-book is planned, to make it easier to read. Thanks to Ali Luke's 'Publishing E-Books for Dummies' , which sobriquet I think Jane would not like. I do not like it much myself, but the book is useful. Not to be confused with the older 'E-publishing for Dummies' which has out-of-date information.
No doubt the meaning of the word 'dumb' has changed from meaning 'mute' to 'stupid'. And the unfortunate deaf-mutes were often referred to as being 'deaf and dumb' - not meaning deaf and stupid but 'deaf and silent'. Somewhere, the 'dumb' part transitioned into 'stupid.' This is thought to be the German use of the word 'dumm' which actually means 'stupid' and apparently has nothing to do with lacking the power of speech. It is what people call an 'Americanism'. That is, it comes from another language or is early modern English!
(Many people don't know that 'dumb' used to mean 'silent', prompting a young educated professional to ask me once why the little elevator into which we placed documents to go to our office on the next floor was called a 'dumb waiter'. These little elevators were used widely for food in old houses, hence the 'waiter' part.)
