Newspeak and neologisms: the evolution of language
In his dystopian novel 1984, George Orwell created a new language for the fictional depiction of Oceania dubbed “Newspeak”. The purpose of this new language was to remove the possibility of rebellion by restricting language and altering meanings: “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength,” writes Orwell. All political commentary aside, 1984 paints the perfect picture of just how easy it is to manipulate, change and redefine language to take on a whole new meaning.
But there’s a flip side to the notion of Newspeak. It shows just how much new words and meanings are defined by the culture, society and technology of the times. So where exactly do new words come from in the 21st century?
Unlike the government-dictated lexicon of 1984, most of the new language we use can be credited to young people, especially women (although we can credit the popularisation of certain phrases such as “fake news” and “alternative facts” to a similarly frightening real-life government figure as the one depicted in 1984 …). “For decades, linguists have agreed that young, urban females tend to be our linguistic innovators,” writes linguist and writer Amanda Montell in her book Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language.
Dr Amanda Laugesen, director of the Australian National Dictionary Centre (ANU) and chief editor of The Australian National Dictionary, says, “Language always surprises you in terms of what trends it takes and where it goes.”
“Traditionally, it was
