Newspeak – today’s vulgate

Abstract: Newspeak is seen as a sociolect of limited politocracy which aims to take over the functions of general language. When (any) government speaks language that favors its interests, it can be said that this is a form of Newspeak. This paper seeks to identify, describe and compare patterns of Newspeak recorded in the Croatian journalism in 1971 and in the present. Newspeak and its basic features can be identified in both periods and it may be concluded that it reflects the force movement of dominant power centers. At the same time, Newspeak actively replicates that power in each period. The change of socio-political system brought new linguistic elements, and the interest of the ruling elite in linguistic hygiene, semantic changes of words and mystification of reality has not diminished at all.