Newspeak:

Newspeak and Doublethink

Newspeak is the official language of Oceania, and had been devised to meet the ideological needs of Ingsoc, or English Socialism. In the year 1984, there was nobody, who has really used Newspeak in speech nor in writing. Only the leading articles were written in this "language". But it was generally assumed that in the year 2050 Newspeak would superset Oldspeak, or common English. The purpose of Newspeak was 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 was, 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 was 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 was 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 were divided into three groups: the A, B(also called compound words) and the C Vocabulary.

A-Vocabulary: The A-Vocabulary consisted of the words needed in business and everyday life, for such things as drinking, working, and the like. The words of this group were nearly entirely composed of Oldspeak words, but in comparison, their number was very small. Nevertheless the meaning of this words was much more defined, and it allowed no other interpretation. \par B-Vocabulary: The B-Vocabulary consisted of words which had been deliberately constructed for political purpose. Without the full understanding of the principles of Ingsoc it was very difficult to use and understand this words correctly.

The B-Vocabulary were in all cases compound words, and they consisted of two or more words, merged together in an easy pronounceable form. Example: goodthink - Goodthing 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 were not constructed on any etymological plan. The words of which they were made up could be placed in any order mutilated in any way which made them easy to pronounce (e.g. thoughtcrime, crimethink thinkpol, thought police). Many of the B-Words were euphemisms. Such words for instance as joycamp (forced labour camp) or Minipax (Ministry of Peace in charge of the army ), meant almost exact opposite of what they appeared to mean. Again some words were ambivalent, having the connotation good when applied the party, and bad when applied to its enemies. Generally the name of any organisation, building, and so on was 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 was 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, was impossible. It would only have been possible to say "Big Brother is ungood". But this statement could not have been sustained by reasoned arguments, because the necessary words were not available. Ideas inimical to Ingsoc could only be entertained in a very vague and wordless form, and could only be named in very broad terms. One could in fact use only 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 was still the normal means of communication, the danger theoretically existed that in using Newspeak words one might remember their original meanings. In practice it was 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 was 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.

Doublethink:

Doublethink is a kind of manipulation of the mind. Generally one could say that Doublethink makes people accept contradictions, and it makes them also believe, that, the party is the only institution that distinguishes between right and wrong. This manipulation is mainly done by the Minitrue (Ministry of Truth), where also Winston Smith works. When a person that is well grounded in Doublethink recognises a contradiction or a lie of the Party, then the person thinks that he is remembering a false fact. The use of the word Doublethink involves doublethink. With the help of the Minitrue it is not only possible to change the written facts, but also the facts that are remembered by the people. So complete control of the country and its citizens is provided. The fact of faking the history had already been used by the Nazis, who told the people that already German Knights believed in the principles of National Socialism.

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