View a FREE sample

This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 10.1.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which of the following did the African slaves NOT introduce to American English?
(a) Voodoo.
(b) Banjo.
(c) Goober.
(d) Gumbo.

2. To what continent does Mencken attribute the acknowledgment of the differences between American and British English?
(a) Europe.
(b) Asia.
(c) South America.
(d) North America.

3. From what language does the English word "moose" come?
(a) Algonquin.
(b) Italian.
(c) Cherokee.
(d) English.

4. What notable author was the first Englishman to carry Americanisms successfully back to his home?
(a) Joseph Conrad.
(b) Charles Dickens.
(c) G.K. Chesterton.
(d) Cleveland Coxe.

5. For which voiceless consonant is the voiced "d" substituting with growing regularity, according to Mearns?
(a) T.
(b) S.
(c) B.
(d) C.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following is one of the three great causes of change in language according to Sayce, as reported in Chapter 9.3?

2. Who is apparently the first literary critic to point out the "enormous gap between the literate and unliterate American"?

3. To what phrase did Benjamin Franklin, Noah Webster, and Robert Southey object as a base Americanism, as discussed in Chapter 2.3?

4. Which of the early presidents does Mencken identify as archetypal of the new American?

5. What does Mencken say, in colloquial American, has obliterated the verb?

(see the answer key)

This section contains 218 words (approx. 1 page at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample