Towards standardisation

The technical underpinnings enabling emoji to be used across all kinds of systems and devices were laid by Google in 2007, when they appealed to the Unicode Consortium to add emoji to the . This is the same standard that allows characters in any writing system to be “encoded” and displayed on screen, like the Japanese ones above, or Nordic ones like ??and ?.

Apple bolstered the appeal by pledging its support in 2009, and by 2010 Unicode could not ignore the growing trend much longer. It added the existing set of emoji to the Unicode standard and has been in charge of the fate of each and every new icon since then. Each year the range is expanded significantly, and new options such as being able to select skin tone have also been added.

While expansions have been driven by the tech giants, technically anyone can appeal for a new emoji to be added. Perhaps it’s time that Sandberg lobbied to enshrine the tradition of fika in pixels?

Are emoji a universal language?

Due to their visual and symbolic nature, emoji are often perceived as a form of communication that transcends linguistic and cultural boundaries. , who are intrigued by how they are used to express tone and emotional nuance. In fact, many of the most frequently used emoji are faces or hand gestures expressing some sort of emotion.

It shouldn’t be taken for granted that symbols are understood in the same way across cultures, however. A classic example from the physical world is hand gestures: a thumbs-up ? is traditionally a positive message of approval in most Western countries, yet in . Similarly, the slightly smiling emoji ? is not interpreted as a symbol of happiness in China, but rather a sign of distrust or disbelief.

It can thus be helpful to think of emoji not as a language of their own, but a palette of symbols, similar to punctuation marks, that help express the intent of the writer. Having said that, each emoji has an official Unicode name in English. While many of us may never encounter these emoji names, they are vital for visually impaired users that rely on screen readers. This means that the translation and localisation of emoji names are required too.

The emoji localisation process

Sandberg has worked on several projects where clients have requested the translation or adaptation of emoji names. For one client, we adapted emoji names from American English to British English. This was more than just a spell check with a few minor revisions – we had to consider the name of each emoji and whether it was appropriate for a UK audience.

One example is the cable car emoji ?, whose Unicode name is “aerial tramway”, a term more or less unheard of in the UK. There was also the question of how to represent various sport-related symbols, such as “soccer ball” and ? “football”, which became “football” and “American football” respectively.

It was challenging to make sure each emoji name was distinct, consistent with the others and?descriptive.

Ingrid Bragd?, one of our in-house translators, has also worked on several emoji localisation projects over the years. The biggest involved translating the names of around 8,000 emoji into Norwegian. She describes the process like this: “It looked like a typical translation task where we translated names of emoji as well as keywords that would be used to search for them. We did get some visual references, but I remember also searching for some of the emoji online to see what they looked like.”

Some of the challenges of the task involved ensuring that new emoji names stayed consistent with existing ones, for example all the “hand doing so and so gesture” or “so and so cat face” emoji had to follow the same style.

She concludes by saying she found it “challenging to make sure each emoji name was distinct, consistent with the others and?descriptive, especially for some of the really specific ones.”

Culturally specific emoji: Finland’s experiment

In 2015, Finland lived up to its somewhat techy reputation and became the first country in the world to release a . The 56 symbols depict a range of cultural artefacts and experiences – everything from the traditional rice-filled Karelian pasty () to the sauna, and .

They also cover a range of emotions – perhaps important in a country not famed for its gushing open expressions of feelings. Examples include , or getting drunk at home in your underwear; “unbreakable”, expressed by a Nokia 3310; Finnish love, a deep connection represented by an icy heart; and , that Finnish resilience or hardiness that is sometimes said to lack clear expression in English (the emoji sums it up succinctly, with a ).