Orwell’s “News Speak” Do you have any secrets?

We are in 1948. 1984 is being written. In his futuristic novel, George Orwell imagines a world divided into three great epochs: Eurasia, Eurasia, and Oceania (corresponding to the Americas, Oceania, South Africa, and Great Britain). The story takes place in London, Oceania. Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth. Its role is to revise history in the service of the Angchok (English for Socialism) authoritarian party led by Big Brother. Every day, he sees that the policy of the regime is gradually destroying the thinking of the people. For this, a tool: “message”. A language that is supposed to replace the “old language” encourages reasoning in a binary way – something must be resisted if it is not meant to be.

In 1984, only a few party members and experts mastered “newspapers” both orally and in writing. The goal is to have everyone using it by 2050. As Orwell writes, it is based on the ninth and tenth editions of the Newspeak Dictionary in 1984, “Provisional versions containing many more redundant words and archaic constructions will be removed later”.

Reduction and transfer

“We destroy words, words, hundreds of words every day. We cut language to the bone […] Eventually, we will literally make thought crime impossible because there will be no words to express it.”, explains Winston Smith’s colleague in the book. In fact, the dictionary of “newsspeak” is very limited. Organized into three classes, it includes a category A, which covers terms necessary for work and everyday life, a category B, aimed at compound words and neologisms, as well as a category C, which contains scientific and technical terms.

“Newspeak” was Orwell’s way of decrying the decay of the English language at the time, marked by a tendency towards slogans and the growth of pseudo-scientific lexicon.

As for the grammar of this proverb, it is no exception and has two peculiarities. First, the exchange of parts of speech. That is, all words in the language can be used as verbs, nouns, adjectives or adverbs. Example: The verb “cut” also means “knife”. And, secondly, any word can take an accentual or negative form by adding the prefixes “plus” or “doubleplus” and “in”. Also, it is better to say “double cold” instead of “very cold” and “cold” than “hot”.

Read moreFrench translation of George Orwell’s subtle 1984

Note that the words “Newspeak” cannot change their meaning in any way. Hence it is reduced entirely to political use and does not tolerate poetry. One way Orwell denounced the decay of the English language at the time was marked by the tendency towards slogans and the growth of pseudo-scientific lexicon. he said: “What is important above all is that meaning governs the choice of words, not the other way around.”