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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 10.1.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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) Lexicography.
(b) Cultural encounters.
(c) Laziness.
(d) Phonetic innovations.

2. What difference in pronunciation does Mencken state most sharply distinguishes the two dialects?
(a) The normative "ch."
(b) The normative "o."
(c) The normative "a."
(d) The normative "-ary" suffix.

3. Which European language has exerted the most influence on the American language?
(a) Italian.
(b) German.
(c) Spanish.
(d) French.

4. What class of Americans is most influenced by Briticisms, according to Mencken in Chapter 5.2?
(a) The middle-class.
(b) The poor.
(c) The vulgar.
(d) The fashionable.

5. Which Americanized foreign loan-word in the common speech means, in its vulgar loaned form, "to prance or to walk consciously"?
(a) Proteege.
(b) Habichoo.
(c) Minoot.
(d) Sashay.

Short Answer Questions

1. Which of the following did the African slaves NOT introduce to American English?

2. Which of the following groups of foreign immigrants does Mencken not attribute influence over American English in Chapter 6.4?

3. What sound did Webster object to inserting in words such as "gradual" and "nature," before the "u"?

4. What "Anglomaniac affectation" did Noah Webster sneer at in 1789?

5. According to Mencken, how do the English pronounce "been?"

(see the answer key)

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