English Spelling History Quiz

When did Christian missionaries arrive in England with the Roman alphabet?

• 900 A.D.

• 300 A.D.

• 600 A.D.

• 1200 A.D.

What did scribes come up with to write the different sounds in the Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxons?

• New ways of pronunciation

• New symbols

• New language

• New alphabet

What did the letter 'x' turn into in words like cough and enough?

• G

• Z

• H

• F

What language was the language of educated culture, courts, and universities in England for a few hundred years after the Norman takeover?

• Spanish

• German

• French

• Italian

What did renaissance scholars do to words like receipt, salmon, indict, and debt?

• Changed meaning

• Added letters

• Removed letters

• Changed pronunciation

What word did English borrow from French and Italian, leading to different spellings and pronunciations?

• Lieutenant

• Colonel

• General

• Sergeant

What did the word 'island' originally come from?

• Greek

• Latin

• Old English

• French

What did English scholars do to the word 'island' based on its Latin roots?

• Changed the meaning

• Changed the pronunciation

• Removed an 's'

• Added an 's'

What did the French do to the word 'colonel' in terms of spelling and pronunciation?

• Changed spelling and pronunciation

• Changed spelling only

• Changed pronunciation only

• No change

What did the printing press help with in terms of written English?

• Spread of new languages

• Spread of standardized spelling

• Spread of new vocabulary

• Spread of pronunciation changes