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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 9.2 | Chapter 9.3.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What language does the formalism of English grammarians come from?
(a) Latin.
(b) German.
(c) Spanish.
(d) French.

2. What word did the editor of the Westminster Gazette substitute for the incomprehensible dash in the mangled Americanism of Rupert Brooke?
(a) Brains.
(b) Bottom.
(c) Boots.
(d) Jugs.

3. Which European language has exerted the most influence on the American language?
(a) Italian.
(b) Spanish.
(c) French.
(d) German.

4. According to Dr. Louise Pound, what do Latin plurals tend to become in colloquial American?
(a) Infinitive verbs.
(b) Adverbs.
(c) Singular nouns.
(d) Adjectival modifiers.

5. Who protested the adoption of the broad "a" in an 1857 work entitled "The Autocrat at the Breakfast Table"?
(a) Frank H. Vizetelly.
(b) Richard Meade Bache.
(c) Noah Webster.
(d) Oliver Wendell Holmes.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the English meaning of the phrase "to carry on"?

2. What term did John Witherspoon coin, framing it within the context of vulgarity?

3. According to Mencken, how do the English pronounce "been?"

4. Which impulse behind American imitation of English orthography is more influential?

5. What language does Mencken quote Sidney Low as saying is not taught to English youth?

(see the answer key)

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