Newspeak: Difference between revisions

Line 10:

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.

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.

{{quote| <big>'''[[Newspeak]] ''[[Trope Namer|Truspoke]]'' (introduced distinctive new terms in the English lexicon, including):'''</big>}}

Line 24:

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.

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.

Of course, unlike Lewis Carroll, Orwell was not '''''actually''''' trying to popularize an [[Misaimed Fandom|approach to the English Language]].

Line 44:

* [[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.

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

{{quote| <big>'''''Otherspeak'' (Other Orwell-inspired tropes):'''</big>}}

Line 52:

* [[Orwellian Editor]]

* [[Two Plus Torture Makes Five|Two Plus Torture = Five]]

* [[Written By the Winners]]

* [[Written by the Winners]]

Line 73:

== Meta ==

* A reason you [[Never Say Die]] in fiction.

* A reason you [[Never Say "Die"]] in fiction.

== [[Literature]] ==

Line 88:

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

* ''[[The 4400]]''. In one episode, when Tom and Diana are sent to see who is writing a pro-promicin blog, Diana comments that they aren't supposed to be the Thought Police.

* ''[[~~Babylon Five|~~Babylon 5]]'': During President Clark's totalitarian regime, and also in a [[Flash Forward]] ("Reverse-Correct InfoSpeak" being used to describe Historical Revisionism; specifically revised bits of history are "Goodfacts" as opposed to "Realfacts").

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'': During President Clark's totalitarian regime, and also in a [[Flash Forward]] ("Reverse-Correct InfoSpeak" being used to describe Historical Revisionism; specifically revised bits of history are "Goodfacts" as opposed to "Realfacts").

* ''[[MASH the Series|M* A* S* H]]'': Hawkeye is told that he is an "Unperson" when the Army mistakenly notifies his father of his "death."

* ''[[Star Trek ~~the~~ Next Generation]]'' episode "Angel One" where the aliens invite some of the Enterprise crew to an execution:

* ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "Angel One" where the aliens invite some of the Enterprise crew to an execution:

{{quote| "Mistress Beata invites you to witness this morning's reaffirmation of Angel One's moral imperative."}}

Line 106:

** 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 ''[[wikipedia:Wikipedia:WikiCrime|WikiCrime]]''.

** [[wikipedia:Wikipedia:1984|Speaking of which...]]

* [[All ~~The~~ Tropes 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.