Oxford Dictionaries, considered the benchmark
in how far the English language has come, has announced on Tuesday that the
emoji, commonly known as 'Face with Tears of Joy', is its "Word" of the Year for
2015.
The Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year is a
word or expression chosen to reflect the passing year in language. Every year,
the Oxford Dictionaries team reviews candidates for word of the year and then
debates their merits, eventually choosing one that captures the ethos, mood, or
preoccupations of that particular year. This year, instead of choosing a
traditional word, Oxford Dictionaries has chosen a pictograph, the 'Face with
Tears of Joy' emoji, to reflect the sharp increase in popularity of emoji across
the world in 2015.
Although emoji have been a staple of texting
teens for some time, emoji culture exploded into the global mainstream over the
past year. Whether it was Hillary Clinton soliciting feedback in emoji or
on-going debates about the skin tone of smiley faces, emoji have come to embody
a core aspect of living in a digital world that is visually driven, emotionally
expressive, and obsessively immediate.
Casper Grathwohl, president of Oxford
Dictionaries, says: "You can see how traditional alphabet scripts have been
struggling to meet the rapid-fire, visually focused demands of 21st Century
communication. It's not surprising that a pictographic script like emoji has
stepped in to fill those gaps—it's flexible, immediate, and infuses tone
beautifully. As a result emojis are becoming an increasingly rich form of
communication, one that transcends linguistic borders. When Andy Murray tweeted
out his wedding itinerary entirely in emoji, for example, he shared a subtle mix
of his feelings about the day directly with fans around the world. It was highly
effective in expressing his emotions."
This year Oxford University Press partnered with
leading mobile technology business SwiftKey to explore frequency and usage
statistics for some of the most popular emoji across the world. 'Face with Tears
of Joy' came out a clear winner. According to SwiftKey's research, 'Face with
Tears of Joy' was the most heavily used emoji globally in 2015. Their research
shows that the character comprised 20% of all emoji used in the UK in 2015, and
17% of all emoji used in the US. This compared to 4% and 9% respectively in
2014. In the US the next most popular emoji was 'Face Throwing a Kiss,'
comprising 9% of all usage.
"Emoji culture has become so popular that
individual characters have developed their own trends and stories," notes
Grathwohl. "They can serve as insightful windows through which to view our
cultural preoccupations, so it seemed appropriate to reflect this emoji
obsession by selecting one as this year's "word" of the year. We felt
particularly comfortable selecting 'Face with Tears of Joy' because of the
frequency and usage data that SwiftKey was able to provide. Oxford's word of the
year has always been backed by real-time language analysis, and our selection
for 2015 is no exception. SwiftKey's data provided the basis on which we were
able to interpret and debate the significance of what a particular emoji says
about global culture in 2015. Not only did we see a dramatic spike in usage of
'Face with Tears of Joy,' we felt the character captured a sense playfulness and
intimacy that embodies emoji culture itself."
Sarah Rowley, head of communications, EMEA, at
SwiftKey, says: "It seems a fitting end to 2015 that the Oxford Dictionaries
Word of the Year is an emoji rather than a traditional word. It has truly been
the year of the emoji. For many their appeal lies in how they allow people to
express themselves, regardless of the language they are speaking in. The sheer
volume and range of data from SwiftKey's emoji report goes some way to
demonstrate how each person uses emoji in a way that is entirely personal to
them."
The word emoji
Oxford Dictionaries lexicographers have also
seen a sharp increase in the use of the word emoji itself in 2015. Emoji is a
loanword from Japanese defined as'a small digital image or icon used to express
an idea or emotion in electronic communication'. It was used in English-language
Japanese publications as early as 1997 but remained rare outside of Japanese
contexts until 2011, when Apple launched iOS 5 with emoji support.
Since then,
usage of the word emoji has soared as English speakers have embraced the symbols
to supplement communication in texts and online, more than tripling from 2014 to
2015; social media rejoiced this year when the launch of Unicode 8 introduced
more diverse skin tones, along with long-requested symbols such as the mosque,
the cricket bat, and the taco.
The similarity of the Japanese word emoji to the
English word emoticon makes it easy for English speakers to remember, but the
resemblance is entirely coincidental: emoji is derived ultimately from the
Japanese words 'e' (picture) and 'moji' (letter, character), whereas emoticon is
from the English words, emotion and icon.
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