Putin’s Political Language Not Newspeak, Philologist Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 1 – Vladimir Putin uses language to his benefit, regularly introducing euphemisms to distract attention from what is really going on; but in doing so, he is behaving like politicians do much of the time and his approach to language does not merit being called Orwellian newspeak, Natalya Prokofyeva says.

            In his novel 1984, George Orwell used the term newspeak as a metaphor to describe “the hyperbolic form of language of a totalitarian society the philologist at St. Petersburg State University says. “This is an anti-utopia; but in life everything is much more complicated and confusing” (polit.ru/article/2022/09/01/novoyaz/).

            Political language always reflects the goals of those who use it. A classic example is the use of the terms spy and intelligence officer. Which of these terms anyone selects tells his listeners which side he is on, Prokovyeva says. That isn’t newspeak; that is simply the way language works and evolves. It isn’t positive or negative in itself; it is entirely normal.

            Something similar can be said about the terms “special military operation” and “war.” Which one anyone uses tells which side of a political divide he or she is on. If the authorities impose punishments for using one rather than the other, that tilts the scales, she continues; but that too doesn’t constitute newspeak in the Orwellian sense.

            And it is important to remember, Prokofyeva says, that “language is a self-regulating and self-cleansing system. Sooner or later language will dot the i’s, and we will be dealing with the usual meaning of the word rather than one imposed by the political system.”