Newspeak is the official language of Oceania and its purpose is to fulfil the ideological demands of Ingsoc (English Socialism). In 1984 no one employs Newspeak as the only means of expression, but it is expected that Newspeak will have replaced Oldspeak around year 2050.

Newspeak consists of abbreviations (Ministry of Truth = Minitrue) and Orwell writes in his Appendix to 1984 on Newspeak that already early in the twentieth century abbreviations were part of political language. It was especially widespread in totalitarian countries and organisations. As examples he mentions Nazi, Gestapo, etc.

The purpose of Newspeak is not only to be a medium for the ideas and worldview of Ingsoc. It is a fictional or artificial language meant not to allow people any thought that may be contrary to the Party. By eliminating any such thoughts, they make sure that everybody loves the Big Brother and will never rebel against the Party.

This suited the totalitarian regime of the Party, whose aim was to make subversive thought (“thoughtcrime”) and speech impossible; it is also meant to make all other ways of thinking impossible (by erasing all undesirable words) and thus remove all possibilities of heretical thoughts.