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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. According to Mencken at the beginning of Chapter 1.3, what do the novelists and newspapermen on either side of the Atlantic ocean delight in?
(a) Travel.
(b) Localisms.
(c) Intercommunication.
(d) Publishing.

2. Which is the first factor that Mencken identifies as an immediate impediment to the growth of the American language in Chapter 3.1?
(a) Lack of a national literature.
(b) Regional diversity.
(c) Territorial expansiveness.
(d) Political disharmony.

3. Which organization produced a prospectus in 1913 that warned against extreme English conservatism in the spelling of foreign loan-words?
(a) British Literary Association.
(b) Simplified Spelling Board.
(c) Society for Pure English.
(d) National Education Association.

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

5. In what year did Noah Webster die?
(a) 1843.
(b) 1898.
(c) 1799.
(d) 1912.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What is the universal substitute for the word "ye" as described in Chapter 6.2?

3. Lounsbury is reported as saying that, "The history of language, when looked at from the purely grammatical point of view, is little else than the history of" what?

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

5. In what language did the American derivative "coyote" originate?

(see the answer key)

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