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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 spelling change is made from English to American in words such as "connection"?
(a) Conexion to connection.
(b) Connexion to connection.
(c) Connectin to connection.
(d) Conection to connection.

2. Which reporter first brings colloquial Americanisms to the written word, according to Mencken in Chapter 9.2?
(a) George Ade.
(b) Josh Billings.
(c) Ring W. Lardner.
(d) J.C. Neal.

3. According to Mencken, what did the first generations born in the New World value as a virtue over enterprise and resourcefulness?
(a) Courage.
(b) Temperance.
(c) Ingenuity.
(d) Niceness.

4. What word did Webster argue should have its vowel sound changed to "ee" instead of "eh"?
(a) Heft.
(b) Beer.
(c) Beef.
(d) Deaf.

5. What letter, when preceding a consonant, greatly irritated Henry James like a "morose grinding of the back teeth?"
(a) E.
(b) T.
(c) G.
(d) R.

Short Answer Questions

1. What vowel sound was dominant in 18th century New England pronunciation, despite common protests to the contrary?

2. What sound did Webster object to inserting in words such as "gradual" and "nature," before the "u"?

3. Which is the second factor that Mencken identifies as an impediment to the growth of the American language in Chapter 3.1?

4. What "great humorist" does Mencken cite in Chapter 1.3 as "celebrating 'the vigorous new vernacular of the occidental plains and mountains'"?

5. Mencken describes the American language as having a "democratic enmity" to all what, in the beginning of Chapter 6.1?

(see the answer key)

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