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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. Which country does Mencken state has a fondness for using surnames as given names?
(a) Canada.
(b) Mexico.
(c) America.
(d) England.

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?
(a) Corruptions.
(b) Regulations.
(c) Aberrations.
(d) Innovations.

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

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

7. According to Dr. Louise Pound, what do Latin plurals tend to become in colloquial American?
(a) Infinitive verbs.
(b) Adjectival modifiers.
(c) Singular nouns.
(d) Adverbs.

8. In what dialect of English is "slick" used synonymously with "sleek" according to Chapter 9.10?
(a) American.
(b) Australian.
(c) English.
(d) South African.

9. In what language does Mencken state the double negative was once "quite respectable?"
(a) Spanish.
(b) Anglo-Saxon.
(c) Russian.
(d) French.

10. What purpose does the double negative primarily serve?
(a) Syntactical compactness.
(b) Rhetorical circuitry.
(c) Reinforcement.
(d) Confusion.

11. Who was the author of the couplet that Mencken quotes: "For thou art a girl as much brighter than her / As he was a poet sublimer than me"?
(a) Matthew Prior.
(b) Matthew Arnold.
(c) John Keats.
(d) Percy Bysse Shelley.

12. Who does Mencken state are the true makers of grammar in Chapter 9.1?
(a) The authors of fiction.
(b) The learned.
(c) The masses.
(d) The grammarians.

13. According to Mencken, the English opposition to American spelling transcends the academic and takes on the character of what?
(a) The patriotic.
(b) The religious.
(c) The ethical.
(d) The political.

14. What does the movement towards the general vowel neutralization promise to do in the future, according to Mencken?
(a) Dispose of many vowels.
(b) Create new vowels.
(c) Reduce the number of vowel sounds, but not the vowels themselves.
(d) Clarify the pronunciation of vowels.

15. From what newspaper does Mencken derive the story with which he opens Chapter 11.2?
(a) The Boston Herald.
(b) The Baltimore Sun.
(c) The Los Angeles Times.
(d) The New York Tribune.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which double negative word is primarily found in Shakespeare?

2. In what century did England replace the "i-sound" with the "oi-sound" in words such as "boy"?

3. What sort of distinction frequently occurs between an adverb and its primary adjective?

4. According to Mencken, which of the following does "one American professor of English" predict will become a spelling form of the future?

5. How does Mencken characterize the vulgar American habitual use of the double negative?

(see the answer keys)

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