Putting the Emo in Emoji
November 10, 2015 12:23 AM   Subscribe

Arika Okrent (previously and previously and previously) is known here as MentalFloss.com's language maven, usually looking at linguistic history, like English language words that only survive as parts of idioms and a group trying to revive the Lakota language. But her latest short piece clearly deals with the Future of Language: Emojis. And how the depiction of emojis for certain emotions vary between different devices/systems, sppecifically Apple/iOS, Google/Android and Samsung's proprietary sub-system for the Galaxy S5.

Yes, the reaction to most of these is "WTF, Samsung?!?" Although as Emojipedia demonstrates, the weird variations extend to other specific environments, including Windows 10, Facebook and Twitter. For Heart Shaped Eyes, Samsung's overly wistful look and Google's lop-sided face are trumped by
Twitter's GIANT heart-eyes. And with other emojis, there are Monkey Faces that look more like bears, Hamster Faces that look more like mice, and Samsung's Horse Face is uncomfortably cow-like. There is disagreement whether the Pile of Poo should have a face (and its expression), and no agreement on depicting the 'Bunny Girl'. For the standard Red Heart, Samsung inexplicably added a plaid pattern, but it is the only one to have an Emoji Octopus with clearly eight legs.
posted by oneswellfoop (24 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
โ˜ƒ
posted by flatluigi at 12:55 AM on November 10, 2015


Samsung's Horse Face is uncomfortably cow-like.

Meanwhile, the Emoji One horse face looks like it's seen some shit.
posted by Mr. Bad Example at 1:24 AM on November 10, 2015 [9 favorites]


My favorite thing today: the way that the official name of the regular old red heart is Heavy Black Heart.

All this time, that's what I've been recklessly texting. My heavy, heavy black heart.
posted by rokusan at 2:25 AM on November 10, 2015 [3 favorites]


Arika Okrent's fourth post in the blue and nobody's mentioned that her uncle invented fantasy baseball?

I come here for trivia, people.
posted by rokusan at 2:32 AM on November 10, 2015 [4 favorites]


The Emoji One horse face looks like it's seen some shit.

Definitely Bojackiest.
posted by rokusan at 2:35 AM on November 10, 2015 [4 favorites]


Samsung, as usual, appear to be trying a little too hard.
posted by acb at 2:41 AM on November 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


" Future of Language: Emojis"

Not in my house.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 2:55 AM on November 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


The Google emoji seems to spend most of its time pooping.
posted by ardgedee at 3:45 AM on November 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


TIL: There's a new middle finger emoji:๐Ÿ–•
posted by double block and bleed at 3:49 AM on November 10, 2015


A lot of the fossilised words have cognates in other Germanic languages. โ€œEkeโ€ seems to be cognate to the Swedish word โ€œรถkaโ€, and I think โ€œwendโ€ has a cognate in German.
posted by acb at 4:04 AM on November 10, 2015


i think the hairy heart emoji was an early case of this sort of cross-platform confusion, interesting to see how much has (or hasn't) changed since then
posted by frijole at 4:25 AM on November 10, 2015




You know, how lol, and wtf have wandered into standard conversation nowadays? I'm not sure why, but I'm petty sure some day my 4 year old will look at me and tell me why horseface is the appropriate emoji for the noment.


On the plus side, each emoji does have a pretty binary meaning, which I think if used unironically could help some folks with autism better navigate emotions.
posted by Nanukthedog at 4:31 AM on November 10, 2015


My niece and I sometimes text each other. She's three, so they're not the most productive conversations. Here's a recent sampling of things she has written to me:
Mmuyyyyyuuuu
๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿ‘ฝ๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿ’ฉ๐Ÿ˜พ๐Ÿ˜พ๐Ÿ˜พ๐Ÿ˜พ๐Ÿ˜พ๐Ÿ‘บ๐ŸŒŸโœจ
๐Ÿ‘ซ๐Ÿ‘ฐ๐Ÿ‘ค
Ok,oYyjhljhl. Hana
๐Ÿ’ฅ๐Ÿ‘ท๐Ÿ˜ฌ๐Ÿ‘ฎ๐Ÿ˜‹๐Ÿ˜‰๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ’๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘ฐ๐Ÿž๐ŸŒ
๐ŸŒ๐ŸŒ๐ŸŒ๐ŸŸ๐ŸŸ๐ŸŸ๐Ÿ ๐Ÿณ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ๐ŸŸ๐ŸŸ๐ŸŸ๐Ÿ ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿ‹๐Ÿ‹๐Ÿ‹๐Ÿƒ๐Ÿ‹๐Ÿ’๐Ÿ™๐Ÿ™๐Ÿš
๐Ÿ—ผ๐Ÿญ๐Ÿญ๐Ÿญ๐ŸŽˆ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ๐Ÿณ๐Ÿฌ๐Ÿฌ๐ŸŸ๐Ÿ 
๐ŸŒ˜โœˆ๏ธ๐Ÿš—๐Ÿš๐Ÿššโ™จ๏ธโ™จ๏ธ๐Ÿ—ฟ๐Ÿšฒ๐Ÿšฒ๐Ÿšฒ๐Ÿšฒ๐Ÿšฅ
But now I'm all worried that the things she meant to say to me aren't the things that I received. From the comparison charts, it looks like she sent me 14 iOS happy piles of poo and one iOS cheerful alien, which is a very different message from the 14 deeply nervous Samsung piles of poo and one Samsung pissed off alien that I received.
posted by jacquilynne at 5:51 AM on November 10, 2015 [5 favorites]


i think the hairy heart emoji was an early case of this sort of cross-platform confusion

"That night he pictured the removal of his hairy heart and to the accompaniment of very romantic music he watched it being shaved smooth by an anonymous stainless steel razor. . . . "

"As I cuddled the porcupine
He said I had none to blame, but me
Held my heart, deep in hair
Time to shave, shave it off, it off . . . "

-- P. Gabriel
posted by Herodios at 6:28 AM on November 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


" Future of Language: Emojis"

Not in my house.


Yeah, the teenager in my house doesn't use emojis, nor do her friends. My 73-year-old mother, however...
posted by Huck500 at 6:52 AM on November 10, 2015 [4 favorites]


Better mend nor you wend.
posted by Segundus at 7:48 AM on November 10, 2015


This will wend.
posted by Segundus at 7:49 AM on November 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


> Samsung's Horse Face is uncomfortably cow-like.

Mais oui! Vachement!
posted by benito.strauss at 8:02 AM on November 10, 2015


This will wend.

Ell.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 8:03 AM on November 10, 2015 [1 favorite]


Behind the FPPs: Earlier, I was seriously considering doing a post for the "12 Old Words that Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms" article alone but nixed it thinking everyone would assume I did it because of 'Wend'. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment I must wendell my way to...
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:40 AM on November 10, 2015


We still use the original past tense of wend, it just went and shacked up with a new verb.
posted by doiheartwentyone at 10:04 AM on November 10, 2015


ok so I only read the emoji ones ๐Ÿ˜•
posted by doiheartwentyone at 10:09 AM on November 10, 2015


This is one of the reasons I don't like emoji.
posted by Chrysostom at 3:02 PM on November 11, 2015


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