1984 Newspeak

As English language students, you've likely heard of, if not read, the novel 1984 (1949) before, but have you ever paid much attention to the fictional language used in the novel?

George Orwell created his own language, Newspeak, to draw parallels between the deterioration of free thought and language in societies under authoritarian dictatorships and to explain how language can be used to control and influence the vulnerable.

Newspeak is more than just a few words or quotes and is, in fact, a complete language that was designed to replace Oldspeak (Standard English).

George Orwell's 1984

Before we delve into the world of Newspeak, let's look at a basic introduction and some background information on George Orwell's novel 1984.

1984 was published in 1949 and is now considered one of the most famous and influential dystopian novels of all time.

The novel follows the protagonist Winston who lives in Air Strip One (which used to be England) in Oceania, Orwell's fictional "superstate." The premise of the novel is that the whole world is at war and has subsequently been divided into three superstates; Oceania (comprising the Americas, Britain, Australia, and Southern Africa), Eurasia (comprising Europe and Russia), and Eastasia (comprising northern Asia), the "ownership" over the rest of the world was disputed. All three superstates are under a totalitarian dictatorship (i.e., they require complete subservience from the general population) and are in differing states of war against each other.

The leading party of Oceania is INGSOC, i.e., English socialism (notice how INGSOC is a portmanteau word of ING- taken from England and -SOC taken from socialism — this is your first taster of Newspeak). Not much is known about the ideology of Ingsoc, except it is an authoritarian party that uses propaganda, the Thought Police (spies), and the all-seeing eye of Big Brother to keep the working classes submissive and the party in power. Within Oceania, the political structure is split into three:

• The Inner Party: The top ruling 2%.

• The Outer Party: The educated working class.

• The Proletariats: The uneducated working class.

Although Orwell never explicitly states these divisions are related to the social classes we see in places like the UK, most scholars agree his intentions were clear.

Within the INGSOC party, there are four ministries: the Ministry of Truth, the Ministry of Peace, the Ministry of Love, and the Ministry of Plenty. The name of the ministries is rather contradictory as the ministry of truth deals with lies, the ministry of peace with war, the ministry of love with torture, and the ministry of plenty with starvation. These contradictory names are purposeful and were based on government names in the UK and the USA during World War 2 (e.g., Britain's Ministry of Food oversaw rationing.) The contradictory nature of these names is an example of doublethink, the acceptance of two opposing things being true (we'll cover this more shortly).

Fig 1. - George Orwell.

1984 Newspeak Explained

You might be wondering if all the background information is important for an explanation on 1984's Newspeak; well, we think so. From a linguistic perspective, language has the power to normalize and cement the dystopian realities you've just read about.

Language can be used to create new realities, hide or twist the truth, confuse or scare the general public, create influential and instrumental power, and more.

For example, throughout the novel, the protagonist and the reader are invited to question whether or not the whole world is genuinely at war or whether this is propaganda used to keep workers afraid and, therefore, obedient. In essence, 1984 is a novel about a man struggling to maintain a sense of truth and reality under the control of power and propaganda.

Orwell and Language

Throughout his career, Orwell spoke a lot about language and released several essays about the decline of the English language, most notably Politics and the English Language (1946). In the essay, Orwell suggested that as free thought suffered, language must also suffer under oppressive regimes, such as the Communist Party. From this line of thought, he concluded in the essay that "If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."

Orwell created Newspeak to show the role language can play when it comes to societies being taken over by authoritarian and totalitarian dictatorships and to reflect the language used by politicians across the world.

1984 Newspeak Defined

Now we have a good idea about the reasoning behind the creation of Newspeak for the novel 1984, let's have a closer look at a definition.

Let's take a look at some of those more complex terms:

Newspeak was designed to be spoken quickly and allow for whole thoughts to be reduced into short, simple terms, meaning the speaker and the listener aren't allowed much time to think.

Do you know the phrase, "Think before you speak"? Well, Newspeak encouraged the opposite.

One way Newspeak reduces the role of language in thinking is by restricting vocabulary. Any words that could be used to question or criticize the party are removed, and the semantic meaning behind certain words has slowly been removed.

Removing certain words not only restricts what people can say but also promotes a narrowing of thought, making people easier to influence and control.

A final priority of Newspeak was euphony, i.e., being pleasant sounding on the ear. The pleasant-sounding nature of words like Mintrue (The contracted version of Ministry of Truth) helps to mask the ideology they carry. Orwell took the inspiration to contract words in this way from the Nazis and the Communist Party and their words, such as comintern (Communist International).

Fig 2. - Big Brother is watching.

Examples of Newspeak in 1984

Now we have a good idea behind the reasoning and purpose of 1984's Newspeak, let's look at some examples. We'll start with grammar, as this largely dictates and explains how new words are created, and we'll finish with some vocabulary and quotes.

Newspeak Grammar

Although the grammar of Newspeak is much the same as Standard English, there are a few differences that set it apart. The key differences revolve around standardization, contractions, and the use of affixes.

• Comparatives and superlatives are created with the prefixes plus- and doubleplus-, e.g., cold, pluscold, doublepluscold. They can also be created in a standardized way by adding the suffixes -er and -est.

• All words can be negated with the prefix -un, which helps with the removal of negative or critical words. The prefix un- is also used to talk about things that no longer exist., e.g., unperson means a dead person.

• Use of contractions and blends - Many phrases, especially those that carry political ideology, are contracted into a singular word to make them easier to say and more pleasing to the ear. E.g., The Ministry of Truth is contracted into Minitrue.

• Standardized spelling to show grammatical forms, such as tense, aspect, number, and person. For example, thought becomes thinked, children becomes childs, and drunk becomes drinked.

• Interchangeability of parts of speech, i.e., nouns, verbs, and adjectives, can play the same role in a sentence and can all serve as a root word that receives affixes.

• Adjectives are created by adding the suffix -ful. For example, uglyful.

• Adverbs are created by adding the suffix -wise. For example, fully becomes fullwise, quickly becomes speedwise, and carefully becomes carewise.

• Use of the prefixes ante- and post- to mean before and after. E.g., antework and postwork means before work and after work.

Newspeak Vocabulary

We will now look at the vocabulary according to Orwell's own classifications. In the appendix for 1984, Orwell included a document entitled "The Principles of Newspeak," in it, he outlines the "perfected" form of Newspeak, i.e., the completed language. He states that all vocabulary will be classified into three categories: Class A, B, and C.

Class A Words

The class A words were used to describe everyday life. These are English words that have been widely restricted, and additional meaning is often expressed with affixes. The root words typically describe concrete objects and physical actions, and anything negative or theoretical has been removed.

Class B Words

The class B words are politically charged words that serve the primary function of indoctrinating the general public into following the party's ideology. They have been constructed in such a way that they present complex ideas in a short, pleasant-sounding, and easy-to-pronounce way. Techniques used include doublethink, doublespeak, euphemisms, and the use of contractions and compound words.

Class C Words

These are words to do with the sciences and are only readily available to those who need them, i.e., those working within a scientific field. Much like class A words, they have been heavily restricted.

Newspeak Quotes

To finish our section on Newspeak examples, let's look at some quotes about Newspeak from the novel 1984: