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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What ethnicity of people, through the influence of the mercantile class, is referred to by a different name in the United States than in England?
(a) Black/African American.
(b) Jew/Hebrew.
(c) Latino/Hispanic.
(d) White/Caucasian.

2. 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) Localisms.
(b) Intercommunication.
(c) Travel.
(d) Publishing.

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

4. Which letter of the alphabet do Americans differ in pronunciation from other English-speaking countries?
(a) W.
(b) Z.
(c) J.
(d) X.

5. What does Mencken state is neglected by those who are professional trained to investigate it?
(a) Philological anomalies.
(b) The vulgate.
(c) Idiosyncrasies.
(d) Formal grammar.

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

7. Who proposed a generally accepted nomenclature for currency in 1785?
(a) Gouverneur Morris.
(b) Noah Webster.
(c) Richard Grant White.
(d) Thomas Jefferson.

8. What does John S. Farmer describe the Western vernacular as being?
(a) Irreverent and irrelevant.
(b) Dry and prolonged.
(c) Racy and pungent.
(d) Flippant and pointless.

9. Which of the following was not used as a substitute for the once indecent term, for highly refined ears, "bull"?
(a) Male-cow.
(b) Gentleman-cow.
(c) Cow-creature.
(d) Standing-cow.

10. To what country does the English correspondent in Chapter 4.5 ascribe many American expletives?
(a) France.
(b) Ireland.
(c) Sweden.
(d) Germany.

11. What word was "coatee" used as a diminutive for?
(a) Shawl.
(b) Coat.
(c) Hat.
(d) Beard.

12. What does Sayce say that language is composed of in 1879?
(a) Words.
(b) Sounds.
(c) Letters.
(d) Meanings.

13. What is the universal substitute for the word "ye" as described in Chapter 6.2?
(a) Thou.
(b) Thee.
(c) You.
(d) The.

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

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

Short Answer Questions

1. How is the "portmanteau-word" formed?

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

3. Which Founding Father is said to have sought to establish a new American alphabet?

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

5. Whom does Mencken use to exemplify the flouting of linguistic purity in Chapter 6.1?

(see the answer keys)

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