Orwell's Politics and the English Language

George Orwell seems to state that due to change we are slowly losing grip of what the English language stands for. We now no longer use what we know is the correct language but instead create language of our own as we have become to lazy to learn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjvN6FTtB60

This may be rather bad video about slang clearly aimed at young children or less intelligent minority. It still shows how our language has changed in the way described by Orwell. Language change is described by Orwell to be like a man who drinks in order to gloss over his failures but in doing so is fails even more in the process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tM4eIBs8WBw


Orwell believes that our country emblem of British lion roar is at present just as gentle as that of any sucking dove. We no longer are proud to hold our countries language in place and so forth have aloud our language to deteriorate into whatever we decide upon. This has aloud the beginning of ‘text’ and ‘chav’ lingo to enter our natural vocabulary. There has also been plans to add a GCSE course in Social networking speech. This does mean that words like ‘innit’ and ‘LOL’ will become part of the English language.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIejs55TL1A&feature=related


Orwell also tells us that we have many problems with decline of our language which includes the following ideas like ‘Dying metaphors’(e.g. Iron resolution) which is the claim that we will use these phrases but they have become ordinary in comparison to how they would have been used in earlier times. While many metaphors have been taken out of their original meaning and have been changed to suit whoever is writing these phrases. Some examples of these are ‘Toe the line’ which has been changed to ‘Tow the line’. While another is ‘hammer and the anvil’ which implies that the anvil gets the worse of it. It is always the hammer that gets broken by the anvil and if the writer has stopped to think about what he was saying he would not have to change the original phrase and by doing so changing the meaning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOGMQ-ySqOY (Judas Priest- Between hammer and the anvil)

Orwell also states that we have aloud verbs to become phrases that we use. This means that what had been set before us by English language continues to change maybe for the worse. He also states that those who use Latin or Greek words are much superior writers than those who tend to chose Anglo Saxon’ language. It is like the jargon used by Marxist writers who chose Russian and French words like Cannibal and bourgeois in the English language means that there are those who are using there own ideas to help the English Language prosper rather than changing the language for lazy reasons.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8mufJngOHQ (Word Of Mouth sample)

It is felt that we need to make sure that our native tongue is kept in check and that we can continue to move forward but never to take our language for granted. 24% of the world population speaks in English tongue which is more than even Chinese, Russian, French, German or even Japanese. This means that while countries like United States and Australia have changed certain terms and phrases that are used in the English language it does not mean that we have to change most of the language to make it easier for the newer generations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d960EWAHU6w (English language cartoon)