Newspeak
All You Ever Wanted to Know
Newspeak
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Newspeak was designed not to extend
but to diminish the range of thought,
and this purpose was indirectly
assisted by cutting the choice of words
down to a minimum. (247)
Newspeak words were divided into
three distinct classes: A, B, and C
vocabulary.
“A” Vocabulary
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simplistic words like hit, run, dog, sugar, house, field
express one clearly understood concept
nouns and verbs were used interchangeably
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the noun thought was replaced with the word think, which
could be used as both noun and verb
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the verb cut was replaced by the word knife, which was now
used as a noun and a verb
Adjectives were formed by adding the suffix –ful (speedful =
rapid)
Adverbs were formed by adding the suffix wise (speedwise =
quickly)
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Good, strong, big, soft were retained (well = goodwise)
Words were made negative by adding the prefix un or could be
strengthened for greater emphasis with doubleplus
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uncold = warm
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pluscold = very cold
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doublepluscold = extremely cold
“A” Vocabulary, continued…
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Almost any word could be modified by adding
prepositional prefixes such as ante (before,
preceding), post (after), up, down
There was no need for such a word as bad, since
one could express the same by using ungood.
All past tense words were created through adding
the suffix –ed (stealed, thinked)
All irregular plurals were abolished (mans, oxes,
lifes)
Comparatives always took –er, -est endings (good,
gooder, goodest)
“B” Vocabulary
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All words that had been deliberately constructed for a political
purpose, which were designed to impose a desirable mental
attitude upon the person using them.
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A kind of verbal shorthand
Always compound words that consisted of welding two words
together (goodthink = “orthodoxy” or “to think in an orthodox
manner”; crimethink = throughtcrime; thinkpol = Thought Police)
A great many B words were euphemisms (joycamp = forced
labor camp)
Many words were also straightforward (prolefeed = the
entertainment rubbish created for the proles)
Every government or social organization was cut down to the
smallest word possible (Recdep = Records Department; Minitrue
= Ministry of Truth)
The purpose was to make speech independent of
consciousness—as nearly as possible.
Doublethink
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to hold simultaneously two opinions which
cancelled out, knowing them to be
contradictory and believing in both of them
to believe that democracy was impossible
and that the Party was the guardian of
democracy
to believe that freedom is slavery (but deep
down inside know better)
“C” Vocabulary
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Made up entirely of technical and
scientific terms