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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 9.10.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What sound did Webster object to inserting in words such as "gradual" and "nature," before the "u"?
(a) Ch.
(b) Y.
(c) T.
(d) Dh.

2. What is the principal reason Mencken states that the English language has not greatly diverged since the foundation of the United States of America?
(a) Transatlantic communication.
(b) Solidarity of higher education.
(c) Transatlantic travel.
(d) American neo-classical tastes.

3. In what does the American pronoun not necessarily agree with its noun?
(a) Subject.
(b) Case.
(c) Tense.
(d) Number.

4. What purpose does Miss Wittmann say is served by the shortening of word forms?
(a) Convenience.
(b) None.
(c) Color.
(d) Creativity.

5. What is the second characteristic that Mencken attributes to American English in Chapter 1.5?
(a) Translatability to British English.
(b) Disregard of rule and precedent.
(c) Disunity of regional dialects.
(d) Resistance to neologisms.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. For what word does Mencken say "incidence" is commonly mistaken to be a synonym?

3. What word was "coatee" used as a diminutive for?

4. Which Americanized foreign loan-word in the common speech means, in its vulgar loaned form, "to prance or to walk consciously"?

5. What is frequently omitted in phrases indicated desire or intent, as indicated in Chapter 9.9?

(see the answer key)

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