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

2. What does John S. Farmer describe the Western vernacular as being?

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

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

5. In terms of politics, an American candidate "runs" for office. What does an English candidate do?

Short Essay Questions

1. How is the advance of American spelling characterized in Chapter 8.3?

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

3. What is Mencken's evident attitude towards the "wearing down" of vowel and consonant sounds in the vulgar American pronunciation?

4. How does Mencken characterize Shakespeare and what is the Bard's relevance on American English?

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

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

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

8. What typically causes the difficulties of the American when hearing the Englishman or vice versa, as explained in Chapter 7.1?

9. 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"?

10. Under what situation does language undergo great changes and renew its vitality, according to Mencken in Chapter 9.1?

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

At the root of the divergence of American from British was the spirit of the Revolution. Write an essay responding to the following questions: What was the nature of the revolutionary spirit? Why did it desire to distinguish itself from England? Why did this desire carry over to language? How was it practical and how impractical? What do these impracticalities reveal about the nature of the spirit? How did this spirit directly influence the American dialect? How did it indirectly influence it? For how long did this spirit continue to influence, directly or indirectly, the American language? What is significant about the relationship between this spirit and the 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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