George Orwell, in his novel, 1984, did not just warn us of the dangers of a totalitarian regime. He warned us of the intention to reduce our spoken and written language. "Linguistic reduction" opens the door to rewriting history, to "thought control," even the control and reduction of perception. As Orwell stated, "concepts that cannot be expressed with words cease to exist."

One of the "Party’s" slogans was "Ignorance is Strength," and of course, everyone in 1984 is ignorant. Are we facing a corrosion of our language today with resulting ignorance?

Today, 93 out of a 221 million adult population read at a basic literacy level or below. Below basic means they can not read a bus schedule or fill out a job application. Basic reading level is so rudimentary that the person is unable to read, understand and draw conclusions about candidates for office or proposed laws which effect his survival.

James Wendorf Executive Director of the National Center for Learning Disabilities said "There is a profound reading crisis in the United States. 39%, almost 40% of fourth graders do not read even at the basic level and a majority of students do not read at the proficient level."

High school seniors are doing much better. Below basic reading scores broken down by race for 12th graders are: African American 46%, Hispanic, 39%, Asian/Pacific Islander 27% and white 21%. Below Proficient for 12th graders: African Americans, 87%, Hispanic, 78%, Native American 80%, Asian/Pacific Islander 27% and White, 58%. Grim!

One can not blame this creeping functional illiteracy on race or insist it is a product of poverty, though some do. Dr. G. Reid Lyon, Branch Chief, National Institute for Child Health and Human Development says,"Approximately 70% of young African-American kids can’t read. 70% If you look at Hispanic kids, 65-70%. When we do our studies and identify kids at risk for reading failure, we know that the majority of those kids who are risk and who will hit the wall as they learn to read are kids from poverty."

In the 1920's, African American children taught in dirt floor one room school houses possessed a literacy level beyond African American children today. And who was poorer than Abraham Lincoln? How about George Washington Carver, African American and former slave? "Poverty sits by the cradle of all our great men and rocks all of them to manhood" said Heinrich Heine.

Another blame is the prevalence of "ghetto-talk," "garbage-speak," "Ebonics" or various names that describe a mongrel, non-dictionary form of English. "He be workin’" instead of "he works," and "he done worked" instead of "he has worked." are examples.

Rap talk is its own "language," "It's all good up in my crib" (home); "I'm lookin' straight dipped" (dressed up in the latest fashion); "Let's dip out" (leave); . "Dippin' in my six-deuce" (Making a car bump). Rap is criticized for its sexual, base and vulgar connotations, easily seen on Internet rap dictionaries. It also is representative of the Orweillian idea of a reduced language. The salutation, "Yo, sup dog," instead of "hello, how are you?" is an example similar to what Orwell’s "Duck Talk"--speech devoid of intellectual value, incapable of communicating abstract concepts.

Lingual reduction is not a new problem. Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady, the musical version of George Bernard Shaw’s play, Pygmalion, (written 1913) tells Eliza, the poor Cockney street seller who does not speak properly: "Think what you’re trying to accomplish. The majesty and grandeur of the English language is the greatest possession we have. The noblest thoughts that have flowed through the hearts of man are contained in its magical, extraordinary, imaginative and musical mixture of sounds. That’s what you set yourself to conquer, Eliza, and conquer it, you will."

Marva Collins, African American educator, author of The Marva Collins Way, did not allow the ghetto children in her classroom to speak "Ebonics." Seven, eight and nine year old’s read and recited Shakespeare and Chaucer. Their first day she told her class, "Goodbye to failure. Welcome to success. You will read hard books in here and understand what you read. You will write every day so that writing becomes second nature to you. You will memorize a poem every week so that you can train your mind to remember things. But you must help me to help you. If you don’t give anything, don’t expect anything. Success is not coming to you, you must come to it." Then she read them an essay – Emerson’s "Self-Reliance."

Teaching methods have changed from the 1920's and while we grow in technology, we decline in ability to read. Books such as Why Johnny Can’t Read and Why Johnny Still Can’t Read by Rudolf Flesch and Why American Read and Spell Poorly by Edward Loring Tottle cite the change from instruction based on phonics (the association of letters and sounds) to "look-see" or "whole language reading."