Newspeak
Newspeak is the official
language of Oceania, and had been devised to meet ideological needs of
Ingsoc, or English Socialism. In the year 1984, there is nobody, who really
uses Newspeak in speech nor in writing. Only the leading articles are written
in this "language". But it is generally assumed that in the year 2050 Newspeak
would superset Oldspeak, or common English. The purpose of Newspeak is
not only to provide medium of expression for the world-view and mental
habits proper to devotees of Ingsoc, but to make all other methods of thought
impossible. Another reason for developing Newspeak is, to make old books,
or books which were written before the era of the Party, unreadable. With
Newspeak ,Doublethink would be even easier. Its vocabulary is so constructed
as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that
a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other
meanings and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods.
This is done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating
undesirable words by stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings
whatever. Generally Newspeak words are divided into three groups: the A,B(also
called compound words) and the C Vocabulary.
A-Vocabulary: The A-Vocabulary
consist of the words needed in business and everyday life, for such things
as drinking, working, and the like. The words of this group are nearly
entirely composed of Oldspeak words, but in comparison, their number is
very small. Nevertheless the meaning of this words is much more defined,
and it allows no other interpretation.
B-Vocabulary: The B-Vocabulary
consist of words which have been deliberately constructed for political
purpose. Without the full understanding of the principles of Ingsoc it
is very difficult to use and understand this words correctly.The B-Vocabulary
are in all cases compound words, and they consisted of two or more words,
merged together in an easy pronounceable form. Example: goodthink - Goodthink
means very roughly orthodoxy, or if it is regarded as a verb "to think
in a good manner". The infected as follows: noun-verb goodthink; past tense
and past participle, goodthinked; present participle, goodthinking; adjective,
goodthinkful; adverb, goodthinkwise; verbal noun, goodthinker. The B-Words
are not constructed on any etymological plan. The words of which they are
made up can be placed in any order mutilated in any way which makes them
easy to pronounce (e.g. toughtcrime, crimethink thinkpol, tought police).
Many of the B-Words are euphemisms. Such words for instance as joycamp
(forced labour camp) or Minipax (Ministry of Peace in charge of the army
), mean almost exact opposite of what they appear to mean. Again some words
are ambivalent, having the connotation good when applied to the party,
and bad when applied to its enemies. Generally the name of any organisation,
building, and so on is cut down to a minimum number of syllables and to
a minimum of length, in an easy pronounceable way. This isn't only in Newspeak,
already other, especially totalitarian systems, tended to used abbreviations
for political purpose (Nazi, Comintern, Gestapo, ....). But the difference
is that only in Newspeak this instrument is used with consciousness. The
Party intended to cut down the possibility of associations with other words.
C-Vocabulary: The C-Words
are consisting of technical and scientific terms.
From the foregoing account
it is very easy to see that in Newspeak the expression of unorthodox opinions,
above a very low level, is impossible. It is only possible to say "Big
Brother is ungood". But this statement can't be sustained by reasoned arguments,
because the necessary words are not available. Ideas inimical to Ingsoc
can only be entertained in a very vague and wordless form, and can only
be named in very broad terms. One could in fact only use Newspeak for political
unorthodoxy, by illegitimately translating some of the words back into
Oldspeak. For example "All mans are equal" was a possible Newspeak sentence,
but only in the same sense in which "All man have the same weight" is a
possible Oldspeak sentence. It did not contain a grammatical error, but
it expressed a palpable untruth i.e. that all man have the same size, weight
..... The concept of political equality no longer existed. In 1984, when
Oldspeak is still the normal mean of communication, the danger theoretically
exists that in using Newspeak words one might remember their original meanings.
In practice it is not difficult for a person well grounded in Doublethink
to avoid doing this, but within a couple of generation even the possibility
of such a lapse would have vanished. A person growing up with Newspeak
as his sole language would no more know that equal had once had the secondary
meaning of "politically equal" (also free,....). There would be many crimes
and errors which would be beyond of the power to commit, simply because
there were nameless and therefore unimaginable. It is to be foreseen that
with the passage of time Newspeak words would become fewer and fewer, their
meanings more and more and more rigid, and the chance to put them to improper
uses always diminished. So when Oldspeak had been once and for all superseded
the last link with the past would have been severed.
1984