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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. What is the second characteristic that Mencken attributes to American English in Chapter 1.5?

3. According to Mencken, which title is subject to the greatest divergence in usage?

4. What word did the editor of the Westminster Gazette substitute for the incomprehensible dash in the mangled Americanism of Rupert Brooke?

5. What does Mencken list as dominant the English alternative for the word "mail"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What were some of the reasons that many immigrants changed their names upon arriving in America?

2. What is the relationship that Mencken identifies between French pronunciation and the pronunciation of Southerners?

3. What was the predominant attitude of philologists towards the study of American slang, at the time of Mencken's writing?

4. In what does Mencken evidently delight concerning the speech of American, in Chapter 1.5?

5. What characterizes the American attitude towards creating new names?

6. What is indicated by dominance of American terms derived from German that are related to eating and drinking?

7. From what tradition do names such as Faith, Hope, and Charity come, and what is significant about the continued use of these names?

8. Why does Mencken find the double negative an appreciable linguistic deviation?

9. What is significant about the divergent styles of naming of streets in America and England?

10. In general, what is the relationship between foreign names for locations and American pronunciations?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

A major part of the analysis of linguistic development provided by Mencken in The American Language is the relationship between language and the territory in which it changes. Construct a well-formed analytical essay that investigates this connection. What are the reasons behind it? What are the consequences of this connection in England and in America? How can territorial linguistic development be seen in the various regions of America? What is the common ground between change and territory upon which this connection is founded?

Essay Topic 2

Of all the various ways in which the American and British dialects are divergent, perhaps the most obvious is the distinct spellings of words. Analyze the significance of this distinction and put forth an argument in support of one or the other spelling paradigm. How do the two dialects go about determining the spelling of a word? What are the principles that ought to be at work in the conventional acceptance of a word's spelling? Which of these principles is the most important? To which principles does each dialect adhere? What is the greater significance of this adherence?

Essay Topic 3

Mencken claims that the true American spirit is to be found not in the textbooks or proclamations of grammarians, but in the vulgar speech of the common people. Discuss this claim in a thoughtful analytical essay. What is the American spirit? Does Mencken clearly present what the American spirit is? Is his a defensible claim? How does the vulgar speech of the common person reflect this spirit? Is there some danger of degradation in linguistic form from prevalence of the vulgar speech? How does the vulgar speech reflect upon the American as a human person?

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