Re: Emoji: emoticons vs. literacy

From: Christopher Fynn (cfynn@gmx.net)
Date: Fri Dec 26 2008 - 05:46:15 CST


Michael Everson wrote:
> On 25 Dec 2008, at 11:27, Ruszlan Gaszanov wrote:
>
>> Is there any other way to express the term "hippo" in Egyptian
>> hieroglyphics
>> then using "hippo" character?
>
> Sure, with the hand for d, the reed for i, and the foot for b. Dib. The
> hippo itself is an ideogram. Sure when they saw one they'd say "dib",
> but one would write it (using @ for the hippo) either db@ or dib@. And
> db or dib would be pronounceable as the same word.

Michael

Maybe emoji are a sign that humans are reverting to hieroglyphics. The
following description from <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Emoji>
seems pretty similar to what you describe:

<< In the basic theory, an "emoji" should be used to represent a thing.
For example, a "cloud-emoji" should be used to write out "It's going to
be "cloud-emoji" tomorrow." which is equal to "It's going to be cloudy
tomorrow." However, there are two more ways they can be used. As
Japanese language uses kanji, emoji can be used in place of kanji or
concepts and basically as a pictogram. For example, "I'm at a
"dog-emoji" "cat-emoji" "shop-emoji"." is equal to "I'm at a pet shop."
Another use is using an emoji as a hiragana, katakana, kanji or alphabet
despite the fact that it will take more key inputs to write. For
example, the zodiac sign of scorpio looks like "m" and a
"full-moon-emoji" looks like "o". So combining with the other usages,
it's possible to write ""cat-emoji" "ear-emoji" is "scorpio-emoji"
"full-moon-emoji" "Є"." which is equal to "Neko-mimi is moe."

The amount of emoji used will depend on occasions. It will be rarely
used in a business email, but in a message to a friend, it's possible to
be made entirely in emoji. >>

- Chris

> Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com
>
>



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