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Tech notes, bookmarks, and misc. notes

Monday, April 17, 2000

Orwell:
B-Vocabulary: The B-Vocabulary consist of words which have been deliberately constructed for political purpose. Without the full understanding of the principles of Ingsoc it is very difficult to use and understand this words correctly.The B-Vocabulary are in all cases compound words, and they consisted of two or more words, merged together in an easy pronounceable form. Example: goodthink - Goodthink means very roughly orthodoxy, or if it is regarded as a verb "to think in a good manner". The infected as follows: noun-verb goodthink; past tense and past participle, goodthinked; present participle, goodthinking; adjective, goodthinkful; adverb, goodthinkwise; verbal noun, goodthinker. The B-Words are not constructed on any etymological plan. The words of which they are made up can be placed in any order mutilated in any way which makes them easy to pronounce (e.g. thoughtcrime, crimethink thinkpol, thought police). Many of the B-Words are euphemisms. Such words for instance as joycamp (forced labour camp) or Minipax (Ministry of Peace in charge of the army ), mean almost exact opposite of what they appear to mean. Again some words are ambivalent, having the connotation good when applied to the party, and bad when applied to its enemies. Generally the name of any organisation, building, and so on is cut down to a minimum number of syllables and to a minimum of length, in an easy pronounceable way. This isn't only in Newspeak, already other, especially totalitarian systems, tended to used abbreviations for political purpose (Nazi, Comintern, Gestapo, ....). But the difference is that only in Newspeak this instrument is used with consciousness. The Party intended to cut down the possibility of associations with other words.

posted by j 4/17/2000 07:54:00 AM