Although the common people still spoke Oldspeak, Newspeak was expected to prevail by 2050. The purpose of Newspeak was to narrow people’s thoughts so that all thoughts would be in order with the principles of Ingsoc, and to render unorthodox thoughts impossible. Each word was stripped only to meanings that agreed with the Party, and each concept was limited to one word. For example, the word “free” is stripped of all meaning except for something that lacks. For example, the sentence “The item is free of charge” would be acceptable in Newspeak, but the sentence “The slaves were free” would not. Any meaning such as politically or intellectually free would be nonexistent. The Newspeak vocabulary is divided into three parts: the A vocabulary, the B vocabulary, and the C vocabulary.

The A vocabulary -

The A vocabulary is composed of everyday words, such as hit, run, dog, tree, sugar, house, and field. However, there exist much fewer everyday words in Newspeak than in modern-day English, and all but one definitions are eliminated. Each word expressed one idea, and nothing more. Therefore, metaphorical or philosophical uses are impossible.

Grammatical Note-

Almost every word in the language of Newspeak is interchangeable between the tenses of verb, noun, adverb, or adjective. The noun and verb are always the same word. For example, the noun thought does not exist, because it is covered by the verb think. Even when the noun and verb are not etymologically connected, one can be eliminated anyway. For example, the word cut is covered by knife. Adjectives are formed by adding -ful to the noun. Some adjectives, such as good, soft, or black are retained, but most adjectives are lost. For example, the word old is ageful, and fast is speedful. Adverbs are formed by adding -wise to the noun. No adverbs are retained, except for those already ending in -wise. Well is goodwise, and quickly is speedwise.

As well as adjectives and adverbs, antonyms could also be eliminated. One can simply add un- to the adjective. Words could also be strengthened by adding plus- or doubleplus-. Bad would be ungood, excellent would be plusgood, and stupendous would be doubleplusgood. Prefixes such as ante-, post-,By using these prefixes, one can cut down on the number of words drastically.

All verbs can be made past tense by adding -ed. For example, brought becomes bringed, ate becomes eated, and made becomes maked. It is also possible to add -s or -es to any noun, such as deers and mouses.  Finally, one can make any adjective comparative or superlative by adding -er or -est such as gooder and goodest.

Pronouns, prepositions, demonstrative adjectives, and auxilary verbs are the only words kept the same, except that shall and should are covered by will and would, and whom is eliminated. Words that are difficult to pronouce, or may be misheard, may keep their archaic composition.

The B vocabulary –

The B vocabulary consists only of compound words created for political purposes. These words are intended to impose a certain mentality on the speaker. Without a complete understanding of Ingsoc, it is difficult to comprehend the full meaning of these words.

There is no standard formation for these words. They can be noun-verb, as in crimethink, or verb-noun, as in thinkpol (pol being police). Also, irregular constructions are more common in the B vocabulary than in the A vocabulary. For example, Minipax, Miniluv, and Minitrue become Minipeaceful, Minilovely, and Minitruthful, simply because the standard formations are awkward to pronounce. Many B words have undertones that are not seen by people who are not fluent in Newspeak. For example, the Times title “Oldthinkers unbellyfeel Ingsoc” cannot be adequately translated into Oldspeak. The best translation is ”Those whose ideas were formed before the revolution cannot have a full emotional understanding of English Socialism”. However, the undertones are lost with this translation. First of all, it fails to mention the blind enthusiasm that is so respected that goes along with the word bellyfeel. Second of all, it fails to mention the evil, wickedness, and unorthodoxy associated with the word oldthink. Some Newspeak words, oldthink included, are created to destroy, rather than create meanings. These words grow in definition until they contain abundant undesirable meanings, so that the words defining those meanings are erased. Through this process, words such as honor, justice, morality, internationalism, democracy, science, and religion were exterminated. Words representing such concepts as justice and liberty are put into the word crimethink. Words that represent rationalism and objectivity are all put into the word oldthink. It is better for one’s orthodoxy not to know the ways of opposing group, but rather to know simply that they are not what he believes. By using these techniques, one cannot follow an unorthodox thought past the fact that it is unorthodox.

There are some words that are ambiguous in meaning. If applied to an ally, they are friendly, and if applied to an enemy, they are hateful. For example, the word duckspeak is a word positively defining an allied orator, but negatively defining an enemy orator. There is also the word whiteblack, which, when applied to an ally, means that he can say white is black when the situation requires it, and when applied to an enemy, says that he thinks that white is black.

Every organization, body of people, institution, country, doctrine, or public building has a name in the B vocabulary, that is a word that is easily pronounced, with a very small number of syllables. For example, the Records Department is Recdep, the Fiction Department is Ficdep, and the Teleprograms Department is Teledep. The purpose of making words as short as possible is so that they leave less of an impression in the user’s mind. This technique was used in the words Nazi, Comintern, Gestapo, Agitprop, and Inprecorr. This is why many B words are abbreviated, and all are very easy to pronounce. A person can put forth opinions without thinking, because they are predefined. This makes speaking monotonous and ducklike. Assuming that orthodox words are being “quacked forth”, calling someone a doubleplusgood duckspeaker is a friendly compliment.

The C vocabulary -

The C vocabulary consists only of scientific terms. Of course there is no word for science, because all meanings are covered by Ingsoc. A person can find all the words he needs for his area of science, and he will seldom have to use any others. There are very few C words that apply to all fields.

Note:

There are ways to make unorthodox thoughts, although they are very crude. One could say Big Brother is ungood. However, because of ambiguous meanings, and a lack of unorthodox words, there is no evidence to support such a statement.  One could also say All mans are equal, but the Newspeak meaning of equal does not support politically or socially equal. It only holds the definition meaning the same size, shape, color, etc. Finally unorthodox passages could not be translated into Newspeak at all. For example, there is the passage:

We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That the secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of those ends, it is the right of the people to alter of abolish it, and to institute a new Government.

The only way to translate this passage into Newspeak would be the single word crimethink.

Thus concludes the analysis of Newspeak.

(Note: all of this information is derived from 1984 by Eric Blair.)