What does emoji mean? How did the Japanese style emoticons?

Today it is almost impossible to imagine chatting and social networks without the use of emoticons. They are able to give the network conversation the necessary degree of emotionality, which is difficult to express by the usual set of letters and symbols.

In recent years, popularity has become a unique Japanese style of icons, which users have not encountered before. Many began to question what it means to emoji, why this set of smiles has become very popular. It's the Emoji standard that is used today in many messengers and social networks.

What does emoji mean? Where did the new standard smiley?

Emoji first appeared in Japan. A unique style of icons was developed since 1998. Despite the exotic origin of emoticons, even Europeans in most cases can easily understand what emoji means. Only in a minority of cases do I have to refer to the directories on the Internet to understand what this or that image means.

For the first time, NTT-Docomo began to work with Emoji. The standard smileys attracted the managers of large companies based in the United States. As a result, they began to use even the guys from Google. In 2009, they connected emoji to their Gmail mail system. But even after this step, the standard still has not acquired the popularity that it has now.

In 2009, many users were still at a loss to say what emoji emoji means when they met with unusual images. This success came to the developers of the standard in 2010. It was then that Emoji was officially included in the Unicode standard.

How to pronounce correctly

There are 2 main variants of the pronunciation of the foreign name Emoji. In both cases, the stress is placed on the letter "o". Some fans of the presented style of icons believe that it is more correct to say "emoji". However, in general, the pronunciation of "emoji" is common. This is how the sound is achieved, close to the Japanese original.

To better understand what emoji smiles mean, it is necessary to disassemble the etymology (origin) of the term. The name of the original style of icons consists of two Japanese words:

• "E" is the "picture";
• "Modzy" - "letter", "written symbol".

If you combine two words together, then in the Russian-speaking version there will be something similar to the "letter-picture". Although, perhaps, a more suitable option is the "symbol-picture".

Distinctive features of Emoji

Emoji icons have much in common with standard smilies from chat rooms like ICQ and others. But there are significant differences. So, emoji characters are noticeably larger than in the classic version of "funny faces". They are also much more diverse, they allow us to convey the almost complete gamut of human emotions that he is only able to experience.

Why is it difficult for representatives of European culture to understand what Emoji means? After all, they are so similar to the standard emoticons. The problem arises when a person encounters an incomprehensible symbol that he has never encountered before. The reason for this phenomenon is the origin of the style of the icons. After all, it was developed in the Land of the Rising Sun. So only representatives of Japanese culture can easily understand the meaning of any symbol. The rest of the people may need clarification.

Most popular emoji icons

A set of icons Emoji provides a huge number of different images for all occasions. One of the most colorful characters of the Japanese set of emoticons is a monkey. What is remarkable about the image of this animal? And what do the monkey icons mean in emoji? Without further explanation, it is really difficult to understand the meaning of this symbol. However, the explanation is quite simple.

Monkey, which covers his eyes, advises the interlocutor on the other side of the screen "not to notice evil." To put it even more accurately, by sending an image of the cute primacy to the opponent, the person asks him not to concentrate on the negative side of the matter. In this way, you can also let the interlocutor know that his message seems evil and repulsive.

Many people, keen on communicating on the Internet, are also interested in the question of what emoji means with the image of a white flower. Some believe that if they were sent a similar message, it means that the interlocutor is trying to flirt. In fact, such a symbol in Japanese culture only means a well-done homework. In this way, the person tells the other party that he has done a great job.