Harp, Splatter, and a Face With Bags Under Its Eyes: New Emoji

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.

I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette.

And Grant, I want to voice an unpopular opinion.

Okay, I’m stealing myself. Let her rip.

Okay. My unpopular opinion is about emoji,

Those cartoon-like symbols of everything from smiley faces to clowns to sushi.

I don’t think we need any new ones.

Oh, wow. We do have a lot, like 3,800 plus all of the Unicode symbols, which aren’t emoji, but aren’t words either, or letters.

That’s right. And we’re going to be learning about some more emoji in a few weeks,

Because new emoji are released every few months by what’s called the Unicode Consortium.

That’s a nonprofit that sets the global standard for text and symbols across all digital platforms.

And this year’s edition so far have included a purple splatter, which I kind of like, and a face with bags under the eyes, which could come in handy.

I don’t know.

Maybe that’s a sign of the times.

But, you know, I will admit that I do find some emoji super handy for communicating meaning and nuance.

You know, I have a lot of laughing emojis in my texts and also hearts.

Do you have any go-tos that you read?

Yeah, I think the heart ones, I think, even before emoji was incredibly common.

You know, the lesser than sign and the three.

It’s still one of the top symbols that people use that isn’t a word or a letter.

For me, I think it’s the little party horn with the confetti coming out.

Oh, really?

Yeah, for some reason that one’s just somebody sends you good news and you want to celebrate.

And so you send the little party horn back.

That sums it up really quickly, right?

Yeah, yeah.

It’s just that you can hear a yay and a little toot and some sparklies falling down, and it’s just kind of nice.

It evokes the moment really well.

Yeah.

Well, one of the new ones that’s rumored to be coming out is one that looks like Bigfoot, you know, Sasquatch.

I mean, do we really need that?

Maybe that’s the one you use when you’re about to set off on a diet.

It’s the before picture.

Well, we’d love to hear your opinions about emojis or any other aspect of language.

You can give us a call at 877-929-9673 or send your thoughts to words@waywordradio.org.