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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Which nationality does Mencken claim is most eager to Americanize the names of their children?
(a) The Jews.
(b) The Italians.
(c) The Germans.
(d) The Irish.

2. In what region of the United States are Spanish names corrupted, as Dutch names are in New York?
(a) Southwest.
(b) Southeast.
(c) Midwest.
(d) Northwest.

3. Which of the following is one of the three great causes of change in language according to Sayce, as reported in Chapter 9.3?
(a) Phonetic innovations.
(b) Lexicography.
(c) Cultural encounters.
(d) Laziness.

4. In what location does Mencken say both the American and English orthographies flourish side by side?
(a) Hong Kong.
(b) Canada.
(c) Australia.
(d) New England.

5. In which city are the French names of streets reported by Mencken to be beautiful but so barbarously pronounced as to be unrecognizable by a Frenchman?
(a) Baton Rouge.
(b) Houston.
(c) New Orleans.
(d) Lafayette.

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

7. Who was responsible for the endowment to the Simplified Spelling Board?
(a) Adrian Knox.
(b) Andrew Carnegie.
(c) Noah Webster.
(d) Horace Hart.

8. What military slang term refers to the sunburned necks of the Marines?
(a) Leatherneck.
(b) Roughneck.
(c) Toughneck.
(d) Rawhide.

9. For which voiceless consonant is the voiced "d" substituting with growing regularity, according to Mearns?
(a) S.
(b) B.
(c) T.
(d) C.

10. Which double negative word is primarily found in Shakespeare?
(a) Not.
(b) Never.
(c) No.
(d) Nor.

11. Which case of the noun in English yet has an inflection at the time of Mencken's writing?
(a) The dative.
(b) The ablative.
(c) The genitive.
(d) The accusative.

12. Who is the author of "A Doll's House," who puts bad grammar into Nora Helmar's mouth?
(a) Mencken.
(b) Ibsen.
(c) Chesterton.
(d) Shaw.

13. In what parts of language does Mencken say the "chief grammatical peculiarities" of spoken English are found?
(a) Nouns and prepositions.
(b) Verbs and pronouns.
(c) Adverbs and adjectives.
(d) Nouns and participles.

14. What name is the Italian "Giuseppe" transformed into?
(a) Jonathon.
(b) George.
(c) Joseph.
(d) Gregory.

15. Whose "gaping maw" often spoils an "apt and ingenious neologism," according to Mencken in Chapter 11.1?
(a) The elite.
(b) The proletariat.
(c) The popular journalists.
(d) The popular novelists.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following does Wilcox not list as a negative treatment of the English language by grammarians?

2. Into what was the French surname "Beauchamp" translated in America?

3. Over how many post offices does Mencken state bear the adjective "New"?

4. What principle of spelling was behind much of Webster's theory concerning the simplification of spelling?

5. In what language does Mencken state the double negative was once "quite respectable?"

(see the answer keys)

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