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Add section on Avoiding Blasphemy
[[George Orwell]]'s [[1984]] describes how a tyrannical government changes language to entrench its power. This is done by the so called ''Newspeak''. Newspeak is a slimmed down version of normal English. Its goal is to prevent the speaker forming thoughts like rebellion or dislike against the government or one of its leaders. Even if an individual would be able to form such thoughts, it would be impossible to communicate them to others using Newspeak. Orwell's description of newspeak was heavily influenced by the language controls of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
[[George Orwell]]'s [[1984]] describes how a tyrannical government changes language to entrench its power. This is done by the so called ''Newspeak''. Newspeak is a slimmed down version of normal English. Its goal is to prevent the speaker forming thoughts like rebellion or dislike against the government or one of its leaders. Even if an individual would be able to form such thoughts, it would be impossible to communicate them to others using Newspeak. Orwell's description of newspeak was heavily influenced by the language controls of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
==Avoiding Blasphemy==
While motivations will vary from from one individual to the next there is a degree to which the secularization of language may be driven by some Christians wanting to avoid breaking the [[The_Ten_Commandments|Third Commandment]]. In what is sometimes described as a 'minced oath'<ref>http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/minced-oath.html</ref> a speaker, often under stress, begins to form a [[taboo]] term and then corrects himself with an acceptable term that rhymes or has a similar initial sound. Thus 'God' becomes 'gosh', 'golly' or 'goodness gracious'; 'Jesus' becomes 'gee' or 'jeepers creepers'; 'Christ' becomes 'crikey' or 'crumbs'. The taboo term may not have any religious connotations: 'shoot' and 'sugar' are used merely to avoid a vulgarity. The fact that words such as 'crikey' and 'gee' have become less prevalent in recent decades, to be replaced with the original 'Christ' or 'Jesus' may be as much down to a reduction concern about breeching the Third Commandment as it is to an increasing desire to reintroduce Christian terminology into everyday speech.
==Notes==
==Notes==