A “language” that contains actual cartoon images of smiling dollops of poop is the fastest-growing language around, apparently.
According to Professor Vyv Evans, a linguist at Bangor University, the emoji’s rise to prominence should be compared with that of ancient Egypt’s hieroglyphics and, to be fair to Evans, the comparison is pretty reasonable. Hieroglyphics were also a visual language, but they took centuries to cultivate and to be widely used around Egypt. Meanwhile, emoji has infiltrated our lives swiftly, allowing for easy, mindless online communication.
Perhaps the Egyptians should’ve given Anubis a yellow smiley face in their hieroglyphics if they wanted their influence to spread more rapidly.
For what it’s worth, emoji creators Unicode are set to broaden the visual “language” (we’ll never feel comfortable calling it that) with 38 new images, including – wait for it – bacon. What language would be complete without bacon? They’re also including left and right facing fists, in order for users to initiate fist bumps and, err, avocados. Because Lord knows we need to talk to our friends about avocados.
Also See: Sending This Text Message to a Friend’s iPhone Will Cause it to Crash
Prof. Evans’ claims that emoji is our fastest-growing language is a little disconcerting, if not entirely surprising. While emoji will never overtake the written word due to its lack of adaptability, it also serves as a universal language that supplements other languages when conversing online. Whereas two people from different countries may have difficulties introducing themselves when chatting over the Internet, a dollop of happy poo is recognizable in every region.
(Via The Guardian)
