"The purpose of Newspeak was not only to provide a medium of expression for the world-view and mental habits proper to the devotees of IngSoc, but to make all other modes of thought impossible. It was intended that when Newspeak had been adopted once and for all and Oldspeak forgotten, a heretical thought -- that is, a thought diverging from the principles of IngSoc -- should be literally unthinkable, at least so far as thought is dependent on words. Its vocabulary was so constructed as to give exact and often very subtle expression to every meaning that a Party member could properly wish to express, while excluding all other meaning and also the possibility of arriving at them by indirect methods. This was done partly by the invention of new words, but chiefly by eliminating undesirable words and stripping such words as remained of unorthodox meanings, and so far as possible of all secondary meaning whatever".(click for website with more information on newspeak)
Despite the rule of Newspeak, Winston Smith refused to give into this particular lifestyle. He tried his hardest to fight the system. And he did so by keeping a secret journal and writing down practically everything that was happening around him. Hoping that this would help him to remember what the world was like before Newspeak and how he was able to express himself with particular words that had numerous meanings.
As you can see, language is vital in any society. It has so many uses and it is hard to imagine what it would be like to be only able to use certain words that only had one particular meaning. In my mind it would be like we were all robots speaking the same language. No individuality, no freedom what so ever.
