Newspeak

Not to be confused withNewspeak (programming language).

In thedystopiannovelNineteen Eighty-Four(1949), byGeorge Orwell,Newspeakis thefictional languageofOceania,atotalitariansuperstate.To meet the ideological requirements ofIngsoc(English Socialism) in Oceania, the Party created Newspeak, which is acontrolled languageof simplified grammar and limited vocabulary designed to limit a person's ability forcritical thinking.The Newspeak language thus limits the person's ability to articulate and communicate abstract concepts, such aspersonal identity,self-expression, andfree will,which arethoughtcrimes,acts of personal independence that contradict theideological orthodoxyof Ingsoccollectivism.

In the appendix to the novel, "The Principles of Newspeak", Orwell explains that Newspeak follows most rules of English grammar, yet is a language characterised by a continually diminishing vocabulary; complete thoughts are reduced to simple terms of simplistic meaning. The political contractions of Newspeak —Ingsoc(English Socialism),Minitrue(Ministry of Truth),Miniplenty(Ministry of Plenty) — are similar to German and Russian contractions in the 20th century, such asNazi(Nationalsozialist),Gestapo(Geheime Staatspolizei),politburo(Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union),Comintern(Communist International),kolkhoz(collective farm), andKomsomol(communist youth union). Newspeak contractions usually aresyllabic abbreviationsmeant to conceal the speaker's ideology from the speaker and the listener.

Development of Newspeak

As aconstructed language,Newspeak is a language of plannedphonology,limited grammar, and finite vocabulary, much like the phonology, grammar, and vocabulary ofBasic English(British American Scientific International Commercial English), which was proposed by the British linguistCharles Kay Ogdenin 1930. As acontrolled languagewithout complex constructions and ambiguous usages, Basic English was designed to be easy to learn, to sound, and to speak, with a vocabulary of 850 words composed specifically to facilitate the communication of facts, not the communication ofabstract thought.Moreover, whilst employed as a propagandist byBBCduring the Second World War (1939–1945), Orwell saw the intellectual and communicative disadvantages of Basic English, because, as a controlled language, its constructions impose functional limitations upon the speech, the writing, and the thinking of the users.

In the essay "Politics and the English Language"(1946)and in "The Principles of Newspeak" appendix toNineteen Eighty-Four(1949), Orwell discusses the communication function of English and contemporary ideological changes in usage during the 1940s. In the novel, the linguistic decadence of English is the central theme about language-as-communication.In the essay, thatStandard Englishwas characterised by dying metaphors, pretentious diction, and high-flown rhetoric, which he satirised with the termdoublespeak,the opaque language that arises fromcognitive dissonance,and Orwell concludes that as: "I said earlier that the decadence of our language is probably curable. Those who deny this [decadence] may argue that language merely reflects existing social conditions, and that we cannot influence its development, by any direct tinkering with words or constructions."

That the decline of English went hand-in-hand with the decline ofintellectualismamong society, and thus facilitated the manipulation of listeners and speakers and writers into consequent political chaos.The story ofNineteen Eighty-Fourexplains the connection betweenauthoritarianrégimes and doublespeak language, earlier discussed in "Politics and the English Language":

When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer. I should expect to find — this is a guess, which I have not sufficient knowledge to verify — that the German, Russian and Italian languages have all deteriorated in the last ten or fifteen years, as a result of dictatorship. But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.

In contemporary political usage, the termNewspeakis used to impugn an opponent who introduces new definitions of words to suit their political agenda.

Principles

To eliminate the expression of ambiguity and nuance from Oldspeak (Standard English) in order to reduce the English language's communication functions, Newspeak uses simplistic constructions of language, such as the dichotomies ofpleasurevs.painandhappinessvs.sadness.Such dichotomies produced the linguistic and political concepts ofgoodthinkandcrimethinkthat reinforce thetotalitarianismof The Party over the people ofOceania.The long-term goal of The Party is that, by 2050, Newspeak would be the universal language of every member of The Party and of Oceanian society, except for the Proles, the working-class of Oceania.

In Newspeak, English root-words function both as nouns and as verbs, which reduces the vocabulary available for the speaker to communicate meaning; e.g. as a noun and as a verb, the wordthinkeliminates the wordthoughtto functionally communicatethoughts,which are the products ofintellectualism.As a form of personal communication, Newspeak is spoken instaccatorhythm, using short words that are easy to pronounce, so that speech is physically automatic and intellectually unconscious, by which mental habits the user of Newspeak avoidscritical thinking.English words ofcomparative and superlativemeanings and irregular spellings were simplified; thus,betterbecomesgooderandbestbecomesgoodest.The Newspeak prefixesplus–anddoubleplus–are used for emphasis, e.g.pluscoldmeans "very cold" anddoublepluscoldmeans "very very cold".Newspeak forms adjectives by appending the suffix–fulto a root-word, e.g.goodthinkfulmeans "Orthodox in thought"; whilst adverbs are formed by adding the suffix–wise,e.g.goodthinkwisemeans "In an orthodox manner".

Thought control

The intellectual purpose of Newspeak is to make all anti-Ingsocthoughts "literally unthinkable" as speech. As constructed, Newspeak vocabulary communicates the exact expression of sense and meaning that a member of the Party could wish to express, while excluding secondary denotations and connotations, eliminating the ways oflateral thinking(indirect thinking), which allow a word to have additional meanings. The linguistic simplification of Oldspeak into Newspeak was realised with neologisms, the elimination of ideologically undesirable words, and the elimination of the politically unorthodox meanings of words.

The wordfreestill existed in Newspeak, but only to communicate the absence of something, e.g. "The dog is free from lice" or "This field is free of weeds". The word could not denotefree will,because intellectual freedom was no longer supposed to exist in Oceania. The limitations of Newspeak's vocabulary enabled the Party to effectively control the population's minds, by allowing the user only a very narrow range of spoken and written thought; hence, words such as:crimethink(thought crime),doublethink(accepting contradictory beliefs), andIngsoccommunicated only their surface meanings.

In the story ofNineteen Eighty-Four,thelexicologistcharacterSymediscusses his editorial work on the latest edition of theNewspeak Dictionary:

By 2050—earlier, probably—all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared. The whole literature of the past will have been destroyed.Chaucer,Shakespeare,Milton,Byron—they'll exist only in Newspeak versions, not merely changed into something different, but actually contradictory of what they used to be. Even the literature of The Party will change. Even the slogans will change. How could you have a slogan likeFreedom is Slaverywhen the concept of freedom has been abolished? The whole climate of thought will be different. In fact, there willbeno thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means not thinking—not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.

Vocabulary

Newspeak words are classified by three distinct classes: the A, B, and C vocabularies.

The words of the A vocabulary describe the functional concepts of daily life (e.g. eating and drinking, working and cooking). It consists mostly of English words, but they are very small in number compared to English, and each word's meanings are "far more rigidly defined" than in English.

The words of the B vocabulary are deliberately constructed for political purposes to convey complex ideas in a simple form. They are compound words and noun-verbs with political significance that are meant to impose and instill in Oceania's citizens the correct mental attitudes required by the Party. In the appendix, Orwell explains that the very structure of the B vocabulary (the fact that they are compound words) carries ideological weight.The large number of contractions in the B vocabulary—for example, the Ministry of Truth being called Minitrue, the Records Department being called Recdep, the Fiction Department being called Ficdep, the Teleprogrammes Department being called Teledep—is not done simply to save time. As with examples of compound words in the political language of the 20th century—Nazi,Gestapo,Politburo,Comintern,Inprecor,Agitprop,and many others—Orwell remarks that the Party believed that abbreviating a name could "narrowly and subtly" alter a word's meaning. Newspeak is supposed to make this effort a conscious purpose:

[...]Cominternis a word that can be uttered almost without taking thought, whereasCommunist Internationalis a phrase over which one is obliged to linger at least momentarily. In the same way, the associations called up by a word likeMinitrueare fewer and more controllable than those called up by Ministry of Truth. This accounted not only for the habit of abbreviating whenever possible, but also for the almost exaggerated care that was taken to make every word easily pronounceable.

The B words in Newspeak are supposed to sound pleasant, while also being easily pronounceable, in an attempt to make speech on anything political "staccato and monotonous" and, ultimately, mask from the speaker all ideological content.

The words of the C vocabulary are scientific and technical terms that supplement the linguistic functions of the A and B vocabularies. These words are the same scientific terms in English, but many of them have had their meanings rigidified to attempt, as with the A vocabulary, to prevent speakers from being able to express anti-government thoughts. Distribution of the C vocabulary is limited, because the Party does not want citizens to know more than a select few ways of life or techniques of production. Hence, the Oldspeak wordsciencehas no equivalent term in Newspeak; instead, these words are simply treated as specific technical words for speaking of technical fields.

Grammar

See also:Germanic strong verb

Newspeak's grammar isgreatly simplifedcompared to English. It also has two "outstanding" characteristics: almost completely interchangeable linguistic functions between theparts of speech(any word can function as a verb, noun, adjective, or adverb), and heavyinflectionalregularity in the construction of usages and of words.Inflectional regularity means that most irregular words are replaced with regular words combined with prefixes and suffixes. For example, thepreteriteand thepast participleconstructions of verbs are alike, with both ending in–ed.Hence, the Newspeak preterite of the English wordstealisstealed,and that of the wordthinkisthinked.Likewise, the past participles ofswim, give, bring, speak,andtakewere, respectivelyswimmed, gived, bringed, speaked,andtaked,with all irregular forms (such asswam, gave,andbrought) being eliminated. Theauxiliaries(includingto be),pronouns,demonstratives,and relatives still inflect irregularly. They mostly follow their use in English, but the wordwhomand theshallandshouldtenses are dropped,whombeing replaced bywhoandshallandshouldbywillandwould.

Prefixes

• "Un–" is used to indicate negation, as Newspeak has no non-political antonyms. For example, the standard English wordswarmandhotare replaced byuncold,and the moral concept communicated with the wordbadis expressed asungood.When appended to a verb, the prefix "un–" communicates a negativeimperative mood;thus, the Newspeak wordunproceedmeans "do not proceed" in Standard English. In the case ofunperson,the 'un' indicates that the person (officially) never existed (or, in other words, never was a person).
• "Plus–" is anintensifierthat replacesveryandmore;thus,plusgoodreplacesvery goodand English words such asgreat.
• "Doubleplus–" is an intensifier that replacesextremelyand superlatives; for example,doubleplusgoodreplaces words such asfantasticandexcellent.
• "Ante–" is the prefix that replacesbefore;thusantefilingreplaces the English phrase "before filing".
• "Post–" is the prefix that replacesafter.
• "Up–" and "Down-" are prefixes which relate to things above or below a frame of reference. This may be literal, or it could be figurative, such as in the case ofupsub(submitting (a thing, usually) to a higher authority).
• "Good-" and "Crime-" are prefixes which relate to ideological correctness; comparegoodthink(idelogically-correct thought) andcrimethink(any anti-Ingsoc thoughts).
• "Old-" indicates a (usually derogatory) reference to the times before Ingsoc; such asoldspeak(pre-newspeak Standard English) oroldthink(ideals since abolished by the Party).
• "Mal-" indicates (treasonous) inaccuracy (according to the Party); for example, any old quotes or reports from Party sources which contradict the current truth expressed by the party are consideredmalquotesandmalreports.

Suffixes

In spoken and written Newspeak, suffixes are also used in the elimination of irregular conjugations:

• "–ful" transforms any word into an adjective, e.g. the English wordsfast,quick,andrapidare replaced byspeedfulandslowis replaced byunspeedful.Goodthinkis transformed togoodthinkful.
• "–d" and "–ed" form the past tense of a verb, e.g.ranbecomesrunned,stolebecomesstealed,drovebecomesdrived,thoughtbecomesthinked,drankbecomesdrinked,andgoodthinkis transformed togoodthinked.
• "–ing" forms the present participle of a verb, e.g.goodthinking(actively practicinggoodthink).
• "–er" forms themorecomparison of an adjective, e.g.betterbecomesgooder.
  • "–er" also forms theverbal noun,e.g.goodthinker(one whom practicesgoodthink)
• "–est" forms themostcomparison of an adjective, e.g.bestbecomesgoodest.
• "–s" and "–es" transform a noun into its plural form, e.g.menbecomesmans,oxenbecomesoxes,andlivesbecomeslifes.
• "–wise" transforms any word into an adverb by eliminating all English adverbs not already ending in "–wise", e.g.quicklybecomesspeedwise,slowlybecomesunspeedwise,carefullybecomescarewise,goodthinkis transformed togoodthinkwise,and words likefully,completely,andtotallybecomefullwise.

Therefore, the Oldspeak sentence "He ran extremely quickly" would become "He runned doubleplusspeedwise".

Newspeak vocabulary

"Sexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four)" and "Unperson" redirect here. For the Eurythmics song of the same name, seeSexcrime (Nineteen Eighty-Four) (song).For an individual without social status or documentation, seeNonperson.

This is a list of Newspeak words known from the novel. It does not include words carried over directly from English with no change in meaning, nor does it include regular uses of the listed affixes (e.g.unbellyfeel) unless they are particularly significant.

The novel says that the Ministry of Truth uses a jargon "not actually Newspeak, but consisting largely of Newspeak words" for its internal memos. As many of the words in this list (e.g. "bb", "upsub" ) come from such memos, it is not certain whether those words are actually Newspeak.

• ante— the prefix that replacesbefore
• artsem—artificial insemination
• bb—Big Brother
• bellyfeel— the blind, enthusiastic acceptance of an idea
• blackwhite— to accept whatever one is told, regardless of the facts. In the novel, it is described as "to say that black is white when [the Party says so]" and "tobelievethat black is white, and more, toknowthat black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary ". (See also2 + 2 = 5)
• crimestop— to rid oneself of or fail to understand unorthodox thoughts that go against Ingsoc's ideology
• crimethink— thoughts and concepts that go against Ingsoc such as liberty, equality, and privacy, and also the criminal act of holding such thoughts. Frequently referred to by the standard English “thoughtcrime”.
• dayorder— order of the day
• dep— department
• doubleplusgood— the word that replaces Oldspeak words meaning "superlatively good", such asexcellent,fabulous,andfantastic
• doubleplusungood— the word that replaces Oldspeak words meaning "superlatively bad", such asterribleandhorrible
• doublethink— the act of simultaneously believing two, mutually contradictory ideas
• duckspeak— To quack like a duck (usually indicating one's delivery of newspeak, delivered without any active thought from the speaker, sounding very much like nothing but noise, but very clearly fully in line with Party ideology). "It is one of those interesting words that have two contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it is abuse, applied to someone you agree with, it is praise." - Syme, Newspeakphilologist.
• equal— the same in amount or quantity. Not used in the sense of having equal rights or freedoms.
• facecrime— a facial expression which reveals that one has committed thoughtcrime
• Ficdep— the Ministry of Truth's Fiction Department
• free— the absence and the lack of something. "Intellectually free" and "politically free" have been replaced bycrimethinkful.
• fullwise— the word that replaces words such asfully,completely,andtotally
• goodthink— a synonym for "political orthodoxy" and "a politically orthodox thought" as defined by the Party
• goodsex— sexual intercourse only for procreation, without any physical pleasure on the part of the woman, and strictly within marriage
• goodwise— the word that replaceswellas an adverb
• Ingsoc— The political ideology of the Party, formerly known as 'English Socialism'.
• joycamp—labour camp
• malquoted— inaccurate representations of the words of Big Brother and of the Party, often used to justify revision of historical records
• Miniluv— the Ministry of Love, where the secret police interrogate and torture the enemies of Oceania (torture and brainwashing)
• Minipax— the Ministry of Peace, which wages war for Oceania
• Miniplenty— the Ministry of Plenty, which keeps the population in continual economic hardship (starvation and rationing)
• Minitrue— the Ministry of Truth, which manufactures consent by way of lies,propaganda,and distorted historical records, while supplying the proles (proletariat) with synthetic culture and entertainment
• Oldspeak— Standard English
• oldthink— ideas from the time before the Party's revolution, such as objectivity and rationalism
• ownlife— a person's anti-social tendency to enjoy solitude and individualism
• plusgood— the word that replaces Oldspeak words meaning "very good", such asgreat
• plusungood— the word that replaces "very bad"
• Pornosec— the pornography production section (Porno Sector) of the Ministry of Truth's Fiction Department
• prolefeed—popular culturefor entertaining Oceania's working class
• Recdep— the Ministry of Truth's Records Department, where Winston Smith rewrites historical records so they conform to the Party's agenda
• rectify— the Ministry of Truth'seuphemismfordistortinga historical record
• ref— to refer (to someone or something)
• sec— sector
• sexcrime— a sexual immorality, such as fornication, adultery, oral sex, and homosexuality; any sex act that deviates from Party directives to use sex only for government approved procreation
• speakwrite— a machine thattranscribes speech into text
• Teledep— the Ministry of Truth's Telecommunications Department
• telescreen— a two-way television set with which the Party spies upon Oceania's population
• thoughtcrime— describes the personal beliefs that are contrary to the accepted norms of society
• thinkpol— the Thought Police, the secret police force of Oceania's government
• unperson— an executed person whose existence iserased from history and memory
• upsub— an upwards submission to higher authority

See also

• 2 + 2 = 5
• Algospeak
• Authoritarian socialism
• Glossary of the Greek military junta
• Glossary of Nazi Germany
• Groupthink
• Inclusive language
• Language and thought
• Linguistic imperialism
• LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii( "The Language of the Third Reich" )
• Logocracy
• Philosophy of language
• Sapir–Whorf hypothesis
• Linguistic determinism
• Soviet phraseology
• Un-word of the year

Fiction:

• Ascian language
• Nadsat

Further reading

• Burgess, Anthony.Nineteen Eighty-Five.Boston: Little Brown & Co, 1978.ISBN0-316-11651-3.Anthony Burgessdiscusses the plausibility of Newspeak.
• Green, Jonathon.Newspeak: a dictionary of jargon.London, Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985, 1984.ISBN0-7102-0673-9.
• Klemperer, Victor.LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii:Notizbuch eines Philologen..Original German language editions.
• Klemperer, Victor& Watt, Roderick H.LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii:A Philologist's Notebook.Lewiston, New York:Edwin Mellen Press,1997.ISBN0-7734-8681-X.An annotated edition of Victor Klemperer'sLTI, Notizbuch eines Philologenwith English notes and commentary by Roderick H. Watt.
• Klemperer, Victor& Brady, Martin (tr.).The language of the Third Reich:LTI - Lingua Tertii Imperii:A Philologist's Notebook.London, UK; New Brunswick, NJ: Athlone Press, 2000.ISBN0-485-11526-3(alk. paper). Translated by Martin Brady.
• Young, John Wesley.Totalitarian Language: Orwell's Newspeak and Its Nazi and Communist Antecedents.Charlottesville:University Press of Virginia,1991.ISBN0-8139-1324-1.John Wesley Young wrote this scholarly work about Newspeak and historical examples of language control.
• The Principles of Newspeak
• George Orwell's 1984