Newspeak

Newspeak is a fictional language in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. An essay about it is in the book after the end of the novel. It is closely based on English, but with many changes to suit the totalitarian regime in the novel. The regime was apparently trying to make it difficult to say or think anything except things acceptable to it.(see also the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis)

Orwell's portrayal of Newspeak is not entirely spurious. Newspeak aims to remove all shades of meaning from language, leaving simple dichotomies (pleasure and pain, happiness and sadness, good thoughts and thoughtcrimes). A staccato rhythm of short syllables was also a goal, further reducing the need for deep thinking about language. (See: duckspeak?)

This kind of reduction can be seen in such places as political rhetoric, where each side strings together rhetorical phrases so empty of meaning that they have been compared to the taunts young children toss back and forth. Each side's arguments ultimately reduce to "I'm good; he's bad".

In addition, words with opposite meanings were removed as redundant, so "bad" became "ungood"; and as many words as possible were removed under the theory that if you can't say something you won't be able to think it, either.

Examples of newspeak include "thoughtcrime" and "double-plus ungood", as well as "newspeak" itself.

Compare: Doublespeak