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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. According to the tale spread by William Gifford, what language was supposed to be substituted for English during the Revolutionary War?
(a) Hebrew.
(b) Latin.
(c) French.
(d) Spanish.

2. Which of the following groups of foreign immigrants does Mencken not attribute influence over American English in Chapter 6.4?
(a) Slavic peoples.
(b) Italians.
(c) Russian Jews.
(d) South-Pacific Asian Islanders.

3. According to Mencken, how do the English pronounce "been?"
(a) Bean.
(b) Bin.
(c) Bein.
(d) Bain.

4. Where was the broad "a" principally established prior to the Civil War?
(a) The Southeast.
(b) New England.
(c) The Midwest.
(d) California.

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

6. What does the English "secondary school" correspond to in American?
(a) Elementary school.
(b) College.
(c) Middle school.
(d) High school.

7. Which of the following is a term used by philologists to indicate the "instinctive search, etymologically unsound, for short roots in long words"?
(a) Etymanalyzing.
(b) Formative de-synthesizing.
(c) Deconstructing.
(d) Back-formation.

8. What use of storage was added to the American meaning of the word "barn?"
(a) Horses.
(b) Chickens.
(c) Cattle.
(d) Crops.

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

10. What "Anglomaniac affectation" did Noah Webster sneer at in 1789?
(a) The broad "a."
(b) Clinging to the silent "u" as in "honour."
(c) The literature of Fowler.
(d) The recalcitrance to neologisms.

11. Which defender of Americanisms cited by Mencken in Chapter 1.3 states that "Language is made by the people"?
(a) Edgar Jepson.
(b) George Ade.
(c) William Archer.
(d) Richard Aldington.

12. What word in American is used for the English word "shoe?"
(a) Sandal.
(b) Boot.
(c) Footing.
(d) Slipper.

13. What notable author was the first Englishman to carry Americanisms successfully back to his home?
(a) G.K. Chesterton.
(b) Joseph Conrad.
(c) Cleveland Coxe.
(d) Charles Dickens.

14. Which term do English dictionaries all describe as an Americanism from the comparative list in Chapter 4.1, despite the English version being frequently used in America?
(a) Railroad.
(b) Rooster.
(c) Hog-pen.
(d) Freight.

15. How many classifications of Americanisms does Bartlett postulate in his 1859 dictionary?
(a) Three.
(b) Nine.
(c) Four.
(d) Forty-two.

Short Answer Questions

1. What letter, when preceding a consonant, greatly irritated Henry James like a "morose grinding of the back teeth?"

2. What does John S. Farmer describe the Western vernacular as being?

3. What purpose does Miss Wittmann say is served by the shortening of word forms?

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

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

(see the answer keys)

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