Pictographic forms of communication are hardly new. From the Egyptian hieroglyphics of 3000BC to modern road signs, humans have communicated with each other by means of pictures, depictions and symbols. This is why the surging popularity of emoji, the small icons that range from smiley faces to food to hearts, is not particularly surprising. As the photo-sharing app Instagram has said, emojis are to be found in 40 per cent of all captions, rising to more than half in much of Europe. One of the reasons is that smartphones and tablets increasingly come with a pictographic keyboard.
Another has to be that it’s so much easier to wordlessly illustrate what you want to say. But the implications must surely be dire for traditional language skills. This is particularly so in this region, where so much is being done to raise the standard of the Arabic language as it is spoken and taught. Even so, the last word on emoji has to be that it has the power to end a message in a simple way.
