Slightly off-topic, but I've been learning a bit of Japanese in preparation for a trip to Tokyo, and I'm seeing the differences in how they treat written language vs. English speakers. Japanese has three alphabets: Hiragana ("regular" Japanese), Katakana (generalized phonetics for foreign words) and Kanji (Chinese-origin characters).
Kanji's purpose is instead of conveying phonetic syllables (similar to what English and other European languages do), Kanji characters convey meaning, which greatly increases information density with the tradeoff that you already have to know what it means instead of being able to just sound it out.
I've noticed that frequently they will interweave Kanji characters in mostly-Hiragana words. This works because Japanese speakers have already learned these characters and are comfortable doing so.
While Emoji isn't exactly like Kanji, learning about this has given me a much better appreciation for why Emoji has found so much use, and I expect that future generations will be able to include it in their language as a first-class citizen, essentially adopting the Japanese attitude towards written language.
Re>> Kanji characters convey meaning ... you already have to know what it means
Yep. To Westerner's, it's Karno, when his mind was fogged, but really it's The beast at Tanagra, despite many Westerners being Kiteo, his eyes closed. The options are either Sokath, his eyes uncovered or Shaka, when the walls fell.
Well kanji and emoji both share 「字」(“ji”, https://www.edrdg.org/jmwsgi/entr.py?svc=jmdict&sid=&q=13151...). I don’t think it’s much more significant than that, it’s the same “ji” in romaji which is just the Roman alphabet and even in the west we have pictures that convey meaning such as in traffic signs, DOT pictograms, restroom symbols and emoticons.
Emojis is fun, and emojis is useful. Let people have fun and use useful things.
Related, HN’s ongoing snub of what is essentially the modern rediscovery of hieroglyphs still grates. You can be annoyed by them if you want, but they’re just another part of language now, you can’t afford to ignore them out of hand. Pull requests and HN comments are not sacred.
Kanji can be thought of as a precursor to Emoji, and the name similarity is no coincidence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoji.
Kanji's purpose is instead of conveying phonetic syllables (similar to what English and other European languages do), Kanji characters convey meaning, which greatly increases information density with the tradeoff that you already have to know what it means instead of being able to just sound it out.
I've noticed that frequently they will interweave Kanji characters in mostly-Hiragana words. This works because Japanese speakers have already learned these characters and are comfortable doing so.
While Emoji isn't exactly like Kanji, learning about this has given me a much better appreciation for why Emoji has found so much use, and I expect that future generations will be able to include it in their language as a first-class citizen, essentially adopting the Japanese attitude towards written language.