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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. What is the universal substitute for the word "ye" as described in Chapter 6.2?

2. What use of storage was added to the American meaning of the word "barn?"

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

4. How do the English pronounce the first syllable in "lieutenant"?

5. Which Founding Father coined the term "to belittle"?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Mencken mean by saying that Americans have "a habit of achieving short-cuts in speech by a process of agglutination"?

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

3. What is Mencken's chief critique of the classifications that he reports in Chapter 1.6?

4. What general problem of language does Mencken describe in Chapter 1.1?

5. What is the character of the argument presented by the Society for Pure English in the quoted caveat?

6. What is the significance of the quote from Sayce at the beginning of Chapter 9.9 that "Language begins with sentences, not with single words"?

7. What characterizes the divergences of language usage that are cataloged in Chapter 4.2?

8. How does Mencken describe the distinction between colloquialisms and idiomatic expressions that are generally accepted and those that are not? What example does he use to explain this distinction?

9. How does Mencken describe the attempts of British authors to give voice to American characters?

10. Aside from numbering and lettering, what is the principal way in which American and English styles of naming streets are divergent?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

One of the hardest aspects of any language that is almost impossible to classify is the nuances of pronunciation. Write an essay analyzing the problems caused by the varieties and degrees of pronunciation. Have the difficulties it causes those who study the American language. What is the definition of pronunciation? How does Mencken treat of pronunciation? What are the ways in which it may change an auditor's understanding of a language? How is the American pronunciation divergent from the British? What particularities of the American pronunciation are significant in comprehension of the American language?

Essay Topic 2

Although American had changed drastically by the time Mencken wrote The American Language, in 1921, it has clearly changed drastically since then, as well. Examine, in an analytical essay, some of the more significant changes since then. What new words have come into popular usage? What then popular Americanisms have faded out almost altogether? Has the language changed as significantly since 1921 as it did between any other comparable span of time? If so, defend your answer with specific examples. Finally, what is the characteristic of the American language as revealed by comparing its present state with that it was characterized by Mencken as having when he wrote The American Language?

Essay Topic 3

An important distinction, which Mencken makes in discussing the nature of the American language, is between the proper speech of literate Americans and the common speech of what he calls the proletariat. Write an essay discussing this distinction and its ultimate significance. According to what Mencken has written, is there a genuine distinction between the two? Which of the two does Mencken appear to favor? What are the strengths and weaknesses of each, the proper and the improper, the formal and the informal? What arguments may be made in defense of each?

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