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WorksheetsHistory of English test 2023
Total questions: 50
Worksheet time: 2hrs 40mins
Which Old English verb class combined the paradigm of both strong and weak verbs?
Suppletive
Irregular
Anomalous
Preterite-Present
Which Old English adjective had suppletive forms for positive, comparative, and superlative degrees?
lang
smæl
feorr
miċel
What is the present participle ending for nearly all Old English verbs?
-inde
-ande
-iende
-ende
What is the estimated size of the Common Germanic vocabulary?
Roughly 15,000 words
Roughly 26,000 word forms documented
Roughly 3,000 words
Roughly 7,000 words
Who introduced the printing press in England and became the first book retailer?
William Caxton
Thomas Wyatt
Christopher Marlowe
John Milton
Which event lasted for 18 months and ravaged a quarter of London's population in 1665?
The Restoration
The Great Fire of London
The Great Plague
The Civil War
What was the effect of the printing press on English during the Early Modern English period?
Decreased literacy and spread of knowledge
Standardization of spelling and punctuation
Development of popular literature
Decreased popularity of literature
Which vowel distinction appeared in Early Modern English, for example, in words like 'cut' and 'put'?
/ɪ/ and /iː/
/ʌ/ and /ʊ/
/ɛ/ and /æ/
/ɑ/ and /ɔ/
Which vowel sound evolved from /zj/ in Early Modern English, for example, in words like 'measure'?
/ʓ/
/ʊ/
/ɛ/
/ɪ/
Which one of these Old English inflections survived into Middle English?
-ian
-eth
-um
-an
Which was the official language of the Church in the Middle English period?
English
Latin
French
Spanish
Which French spelling became a noticeable feature of English words?
cw
qu
kw
cu
What preceding sound does a final 'e' come to show in Middle English period?
A voiceless consonant
A nasal consonant
A long vowel
A short vowel
Which language is the source of the pronouns they and them?
Old English
Old Norse
Old Saxon
French
What form of the verb develops during the Middle English period?
Continuous
Infinitive
Past tense
Subjunctive
What word class became important when inflections were lost?
Conjunction
Auxiliary verb
Preposition
Pronoun
Which vowels were affected by the Great Vowels Shift?
Short vowels
Long vowels
Diphthongs
Triphthongs
Which one of these words would most closely resemble the way time was pronounced before the Great Vowel Shift?
Teem
Tim
Tame
Tem
What are the four main dialects of old English?
Southern
Kentish
East Midlands
West Midlands
Northern
Northumbrian
Kentish
West Midlands
Mercian
Northumbrian
Kentish
West Saxon
Northumbrian
West Saxon
Mercian
East Midlands
In what year was the transition from Old English to Middle English started?
In the 1606
In the 1066
In the 1600
In the 1660
What is the term used to describe what is happening when Shakespeare uses grace as a verb?
Conversion
Transfer
Metaphor
Simile
Which area of language did Shakespeare most influence?
Grammar
Vocabulary
Spelling
Pronunciation
In Middle English, two consecutive vowels show what?
that the vowel is long
that the vowel is short
that the vowel is mute
Which of these words are derived from French?
cow
pig
pork
beef
The Great Vowel Shift happened during ___ period.
Old English
Middle English
Early Modern English
Old English metaphorical, compound-word descriptions used to replace a noun is a ___ .
Kenning
Alliteration
Assonance
Consonance
In "The droghte of March hath perced to the roote"
What is the linguistic relevance of the underlined phrase?
the verbal category of the 3rd person appears in the ME period
the analytical forms start appearing in the ME period
French loanwords start to be used as auxiliaries
the loss of "ᚦ" (thorn) rune has led phonetic change in pronunciation from /s/ to /th/
In "And smale foweles maken melodye"
the underlined word is a:
weak singular adjective
strong plural adjective
comparative adjective
present participle
In "That hem hath holpen whan that they were seeke"
the undelined word is:
an infinitive
a past participle
past plural
plural noun
In "And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes" and "The hooly blisful martir for to seke" the underlined phrases:
contain infinitives formed from strong and weak verbs
reflect variants of the same grammatical form
show that Middle English had singular and plural forms of infinitive
show coincidental forms of an infinitival particle and preposition of direction
In the following line "hath perced to the roote,"
The underlined word is pronounced (in IPA):
/roːtə/
/ruːtə/
/rʊt/
/ruːt/
Which describes the form of the underlined word:
hē swā feor norþ swā þā hwælhuntan firrest faraþ
comparative degree
2nd person singular verb
plural noun
superlative degree
Which describes the nature of the underlined phrase:
"O, that I were a glove upon that hand, "
past simple plural
past simple singular
subjunctive
imperative
What accounts for the difference in pronunciation of the underlined word in Chaucer's "whan that they were seeke", and Shakespeare's "Who is already sick and pale with grief"
Great Vowel Shift
Germanic umlaut
Indo-European ablaut
Grimm's law
What explains that equivalents to the word 'þrīe' in other Indo-European languages have 'T' as the first sound (три, tres, trois) ?
Great Vowel Shift
Norman Conquest
Grimm's law
Ablaut
In "O, swear not by the moon" and "Do not swear at all" the underlined phrases:
contain negatives from present and future
reflect variants of the same grammatical form
come from different periods of English language
contain an emphatic and a non-emphatic form
In Shakespeare's English the underlined words in lines
"were he not Romeo call'd" and "You are looked for and called for"
were pronounced the same
were pronounced differently
were different grammatical forms
had the same number of syllables
In the following line "A knyght ther was, and that a worthy man,"
The underlined word is pronounced (in IPA):
/naɪt/
/knaɪt/
/knixt/
/nixt/
Which feature of Old English poetic language is represented in the underlined words:
Grendel gongan, godes yrre bær
kennings
alliteration
repetition
subjunctive
In "Bifil that in that seson on a day'
what is the linguistic significance of the underlined portion:
Middle English past participles normally preceded auxiliaries in analytical forms
Inversion appeared in Middle English as a result of development of analytical forms
Middle English preferred VSO over SVO word order
Middle English allowed for the verb to precede the subject with no change in emphasis
What is the name of the Anglo-Saxon runic alphabet?
Futhorc
Elder Futhark
Beowulf
Wessex
What phonological process is behind singular mūs becoming plural mȳs?
Ablaut
Umlaut
Grimm's law
Verner's law
Which classes of Old English verb formed past through a dental suffix?
weak
strong
preterite-present
suppletive
Which of the following are etymological doublets?
skirt / shirt
right / wrong
brother / friar
wish / desire
Which of the following is an example of metathesis?
wæps to wasp
þunor to thonder
hnecca to nekka
fēolaga to felawe
In "So priketh hem Nature in hir corages"
the underlined word is:
a French loanword
a native English 3rd person singular pronoun
of Scandinavian origin
a native English 3rd person plural pronoun
In "Hath in the Ram his half cours yronne"
the underlined word:
has a perfective prefix
is a weak verb
is a borrowing from German
has Germanic umlaut
Which describes the nature of the underlined phrase:
If they do see thee, they will murder thee.
future tense
emphatic form
non-emphatic present
imperative
Identify the correct transformations from Old English to Middle English.
fisc > fish
naut> note
stan> ston
nama > name
