Newspeak: Difference between revisions

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''"Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc."''

[[Newspeak]] is a [[Fictionary|fictive language]] invented by [[George Orwell]] for the novel ''[[Nineteen Eighty Four]].'' Newspeak was the official language of Oceania, and the inhabitants of Oceania were 'encouraged' to think and converse in Newspeak.

[[Newspeak]] is a [[Fictionary|fictive language]] invented by [[George Orwell]] for the novel ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]].'' Newspeak was the official language of Oceania, and the inhabitants of Oceania were 'encouraged' to think and converse in Newspeak.

The goal of Newspeak was essentially the reduction of vocabulary and destruction of words, especially synonyms and antonyms, and to render language instinctively euphemistic (if "good" already exists then "bad" will be abolished, instead replaced by "ungood"), so as to suppress any possibility of expressing rebellious thoughts against the party in the form of words. Based on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_English#Rules the rules of Basic English] and the (now [[Language Equals Thought|discredited]]) strong form of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_hypothesis Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis] (the weak form is also controversial), it was intended to be a psychological and linguistic [[Restraining Bolt]] on the population of [[Airstrip One|Oceania]]. Its construction is similar to [[Esperanto]] (Ungood/Malbona) and other compounding languages (such as German). Contraction conventions from historical totalitarian regimes were also incorporated, resulting in words like "Ingsoc" which are similar in construction to "Comintern", "Nazi" and "Gestapo". Acronyms are used extensively. The Party predicted (or propagandized) that Newspeak would completely supplant English by 2050. Every edition of the Newspeak Dictionary was ''smaller'' than its predecessor.

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Orwell provided [[Fictionary|an appendix]] discussing the features of the language in the novel.

As noted above, many features of Newspeak are in fact similar to the features of real life compounding languages, including German and Russian, but also many Native American languages. This gave Newspeak a certain "[[Black Speech|totalitarian flavor]]" at a time when both Germany and Russia had totalitarian governments. This point may be lost today, if only due to the popularity of the phenomenon, the theory that there is a connection between language and social behavior being mostly discredited (after all, people can go through many different governments, totalitarian or not, without changing their language). Also, this makes Newspeak especially difficult to portray in a translation of [[Nineteen Eighty Four]] into a language that is already agglutinative. If the word for "bad" in your native language is already something like "ungood", translators will have a hard time coming up with a Newspeak version of it.

As noted above, many features of Newspeak are in fact similar to the features of real life compounding languages, including German and Russian, but also many Native American languages. This gave Newspeak a certain "[[Black Speech|totalitarian flavor]]" at a time when both Germany and Russia had totalitarian governments. This point may be lost today, if only due to the popularity of the phenomenon, the theory that there is a connection between language and social behavior being mostly discredited (after all, people can go through many different governments, totalitarian or not, without changing their language). Also, this makes Newspeak especially difficult to portray in a translation of [[Nineteen Eighty-Four]] into a language that is already agglutinative. If the word for "bad" in your native language is already something like "ungood", translators will have a hard time coming up with a Newspeak version of it.

Strictly speaking, neither German nor Russian is an agglutinative language. The difference between them and English is one of spelling, that in German a compound is written as one word ("Physiklehrer") while in English it is written as two ("physics teacher"). Russian in fact often will use a combination of "(noun-derived) adjective + noun" where German and English use "noun + noun" compounds. The feature that Orwell imitated in Newspeak was a way of combining clipped elements of different words into one, because that became very pronounced in the language used by the Nazi and Soviet Communist regimes. However, linguistically speaking they are not that different from [[Portmanteau]] words (e. g. "brunch") or [[Fun With Acronyms|acronyms]] pronounced as words (e. g. "radar", "laser") and such constructions were freely, if less frequently, used before, after and apart from the two totalitarian regimes.

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Neologisms that are based on Newspeak syntax but not coined by Orwell have also appeared, the most notable being ''[[Too Many Cooks|groupthink]]'' (describing a group thought process where everybody is going along with everybody else and no one is thinking rationally). [[Life Imitates Art|Frighteningly often]] such words are coined in political/media circles (and the [[Memetic Mutation|Internet]]). For instance, ''[[Double Speak]]'' has retained its Orwellian connotations, even though [[Beam Me Up Scotty|he never said it]].

Neologisms that are based on Newspeak syntax but not coined by Orwell have also appeared, the most notable being ''[[Too Many Cooks|groupthink]]'' (describing a group thought process where everybody is going along with everybody else and no one is thinking rationally). [[Life Imitates Art|Frighteningly often]] such words are coined in political/media circles (and the [[Memetic Mutation|Internet]]). For instance, ''[[Double Speak]]'' has retained its Orwellian connotations, even though [[Beam Me Up, Scotty|he never said it]].

Some Orwellian phrases have been replaced by modern equivalents; ''bellyfeel'' never caught on, [[Perfectly Cromulent Word|despite the usefulness]] of a word to describe "that which is calculated to give a positive gut reaction", possibly because it sounds childish and begs to be used literally. The appearance of ''[[Stephen Colbert|truthiness]]'', which contains the same meaning (that Orwell intended, not [[In Universe|Ingsoc]]) and ''mouthfeel'' which ''does'' literally mean "[[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|how a piece of food feels in the diner's mouth]]" in the past decade have probably ended ''bellyfeel'''s chances.

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* [[George Orwell|Orwellian]]

* [[Nineteen Eighty Four|1984]]

* [[Nineteen Eighty-Four|1984]]

{{quote| <big>'''[[Newspeak]] ''[[Trope Codifier|thoughtmade]]'' the following tropes:'''</big>}}

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* [[CamelCase|BiCapitalization]]

* [[Language Equals Thought]]

* [[~~Peoples~~ Republic of Tyranny]]

* [[People's Republic of Tyranny]]

* [[Super Fun Happy Thing of Doom]]: All the Ministries are an example.

* [[We Will Use Wiki Words in The Future]]: we do.

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== [[Literature]] ==

* ''[[Nineteen Eighty Four]]'' ([[Trope Maker|Well]] [[Captain Obvious|du'h]])

* ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'' ([[Trope Maker|Well]] [[Captain Obvious|du'h]])

* Anthony Burgess plays with this as "Worker's English" (or WE) in his novel, ''1985'', written as a response to Orwell.

* Ayn Rand's novella ''Anthem'' depicts a stagnant, collectivist future in which words like "I," "Me," "Mine," have been eliminated in favor of "We", "Us," and "Our." He/She has become "They." Other words have been eliminated as well, which the main character rediscovers from ancient texts. Rand's use of the basic concept even predates Orwell.

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== [[Web Original]] ==

** More 1984-ian: [http://www.google.com/search?safe=off&q=badsite+site%3Awikipedia.org badsite], [http://www.google.com/search?safe=off&q=wikilove+site%3Awikipedia.org wikilove], and now ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiCrime WikiCrime]''.

** [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:1984 Speaking of which...]

* [[T ~~Vtropes~~ Will Ruin Your Vocabulary|This very site]].

* [[All The Tropes Will Ruin Your Vocabulary|This very site]].

** [http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=204013 More than one would think].

** In particular, one of the goals of Newspeak was to replace colorful, evocative, varied expressions with boring, mechanical, precise ones. Many of the article title changes over the course of [[TV Tropes]]' history are disturbingly close to this ideal.