The Principles of Newspeak

By: Madison Zajicek and Breanna Labos

Superstates Eastasia-Smallest of the 3 Superstates. Consisted of China and the countries

to the south of it, Japan, and a portion of Manchuria, Mongolia, and Tibet. Eastasia was Oceania's ally at the start of the book, and by the end Eastasia is and had always been Oceania's enemy.

Eurasia-Composed of the whole northern part of the European and Asiatic land-mass, from Portugal to the Bering Strait. Eurasia was Oceania's enemy at the start of the book, and by the end Eurasia had always been Oceania's ally.

Oceania(Airstrip One)-Where the story takes place. Comprised of North and South America, Britain, Australia, and southern portions of Africa.

Definition of Newspeak The official language of Oceania created by

The Party that limits the number of ways a person can express themselves, making thoughtcrime nearly impossible. Every day the language is being reduced to form a new language.

Newspeak is divided into 3 categories; A, B, C

“It was expected that Newspeak would have superseded Oldspeak by about the year 2050.”

“A” Vocabulary “A vocabulary consisted of words needed for the business of every day life (eating,

drinking, working, putting on ones clothes, going up and down stairs, riding in vehicles, gardening, cooking and the like).”

“Composed of words that we already possess--- words like hit, run, dog, tree, sugar, house, field.”

“In comparison with the present-day English vocabulary, their number is extremely small, while their meanings were more defined.”

“It was intended to express simple purposive thoughts usually involving concrete objects or physical actions.”

“Grammar of Newspeak: complete interchangeability between different parts of speech. Any word in the language could be used either as verb, noun, adjective, or adverb.”

“The word thought did not exist in Newspeak its place was taken by think which is a duty for both noun and verb.

In Newspeak there are no words that mean the opposite of each other, for example they would simply add the affix –un to mean opposite or plus or double plus for emphasis.

In Newspeak there is no irregularity for example all words that describe the past simply end in –ed, and all plurals are made by adding s or es.

Ex: ungood, plusgood, doubleplusgood

“B” Vocabulary Consists of words which had been deliberately constructed for political purposes

in which not only had in every case a political implication, but were intended to impose a desirable mental attitude upon the person using them.

“The B words were a sort of verbal shorthand, often packing whole ranges of ideas into a few syllables.”

The B words in all cases were compound words. All of the ministries are examples of B vocabulary

Through the use of these words you are limited to the way you can express what you are thinking.

“No word in the B Vocabulary was ideologically neutral. A great many were euphemisms.”

Ex: Records Department= Recdep, Fiction Department= Ficdep, Teleprograms Department=Teledep, INGSOC, goodthink, sexcrime, joycamp, thinkpol

Words are easily pronounceable Words such as honor, justice, morality, democracy, and religion no longer exist

as they are viewed as unorthodox and criminal.

Ministries Minipax (Ministry of Peace)

War Miniluv(Ministry of Love)

Law and order Enforcers of law and most feared by Winston

Miniplenty (Ministry of Plenty) Rations Economy

Minitrue (Ministry of Truth) Propaganda Includes Department of Records where Winston

works In charge of rewriting history

“C” Vocabulary Consisted entirely of scientific and technical terms.” Derived from current words, but have more defined

meanings. Not often used in daily speech. “It was impossible to translate any passage of Oldspeak into

Newspeak unless it either referred to some technical process or some very simple everyday action, or was already orthodox.”

Many old works of literature cannot be translated. For example: The Declaration of Independence would simply say crimethink.

Was it/will it succeed in its ultimate goal?

The ultimate goal of Newspeak is to help the government of Oceania further control its people. Through the use of Newspeak thoughtcrime is nearly impossible. By limiting the number of words present the government can limit the number of thoughts conceivable.

It will succeed in its ultimate goal. It will be successful because the people are not doing anything to prevent the creation of Newspeak. They follow blindly behind Big Brother and believe that he will only improve the country.