A Clockwork Orange Literary Devices

Explanation and Analysis—Nadsat:

Language is one of the most famous parts of Burgess's novel, particularly the dialect of Nadsat that Alex and his fellow droogs use. Nadsat is a mixture of Russian, Cockney English, German, and invented slang/vocabulary/grammar that is slightly difficult to understand for the English reader at first, given that most of the common words have Slavic origins and thus are not cognate (having the same original word or root) with their English translations.

Burgess invented Nadsat rather than using contemporary slang so that it wouldn't age too quickly. However, readers began adopting Nadsat words in real life, creating the very problem Burgess tried to avoid.

When Alex is receiving the Ludovico Technique in Part 2, Chapter 6, the Doctors comment on this dialect, which Alex slides into in his frustration:

'These grahzny sodding veshches that come out of my gulliver and my plot,' I said, 'that's what it is.'

'Quaint,' said Dr. Brodsky, like smiling, 'the dialect of the tribe. Do you know anything of its provenance, Branom?'

'Odd bits of rhyming slang,' said Dr. Branom, who did not look quite so much like a friend any more. 'A bit of gipsy talk, too. But most of the roots are Slav. Propaganda. Subliminal penetration.'

In this short sentence, Alex uses five Nadsat words, becoming rather unintelligible to the doctors.

An additional feature of Nadsat is the "gentleman's goloss," or gentleman's voice/tone, which uses grammar, particularly verb forms, of older versions of English to make fun of pretentious or posh speech.

In Part 1, Chapter 2, when Alex enters the house of the writer he will later come to know as F. Alexander, he addresses him using this voice:

Never fear. If fear thou hast in their heart, O brother, pray banish it forthwith.

Using antiquated words and verb tenses like "thou," "hast," and "forthwith," Alex attempts to make himself sound more respectable to this writer.