Transcript Appendix: The Principles of Newspeak

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 landmass, 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superseded Oldspeak by about the year 2050.”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.