我笑，我哭，我来啦

2017-06-10ByCatherineMcNiff

新东方英语·中学版 2017年6期

By+Catherine+McNiff

Not to be confused with the comparatively "ancient" emoticon1）， the emoji—from the Japanese： "e" （"picture"） and "moji" （"character"）—is a modern phenomenon.

Emoji这个词源自日语，“e”指“图形”，“moji”指“字符”。千万不要把表情符（emoji）和较为“古老”的表情符号（emoticon）混为一谈，它可是现代才有的现象。

Gifts from the East

Born in the late 1990s， the smiling， happy face first began popping up around the turn of the 21st century with the launch of the i-mode2） mobile internet platform in Japan. The proud father was Shigetaka Kurita， who had only a month to come up with 180 of the visual references. He went out into the city to observe how people interacted with each other， expressed emotion， and responded to existing miniature pictorial3） representations such as simplistic weather icons. According to Kurita， inspiration for the first emojis came from two sources. The first was manga4）， a Japanese comic book or graphic novel， and more specifically， manpu， the symbols used to express certain situations， expressions or emotions only in manga. The second was the pictogram5）， a set of universal symbols used to convey information or alert the public.

Instant Gratification6）

Being able to express oneself—including real-time emotion—quickly and efficiently in digital text could be described as a basic human need of our modern world. Emojis help satisfy this fundamental requirement in a fun and quirky7） way. It is no surprise that the Japanese， with their historical foundation of ideograms8）， took to the new communication tool quickly. Due to differences in hardware development， it took more than a decade for the emoji to make serious inroads into9） the rest of the world， but it would appear that these diminutives10） are here to stay11）. When asked to comment on the emoji&apos；s increasing use and popularity， Kurita expressed his enthusiasm： "I wish everyone around the world would enjoy using emoji！"

对很多人来说，表情符是一个熟悉的陌生人。虽然我们经常使用，虽然我们爱不释手，但对于这些席卷全球的符号，很多人可能都是一知半解甚至一无所知。是谁创造了它们？它们又是如何火遍全球的？让我们一起走近这些会哭会笑的表情符，

去听听它们的故事。

来自东方的礼物

这个快乐的笑脸诞生于20世纪90年代末，随着日本i-mode移动互联网平台的发布，在跨入21世纪之际首次跃入大众的眼帘。而创造这个表情符的正是以之为傲的栗田穰崇，他只用了一个月的时间就设计出了180个栩栩如生的图形符号。他走出家门在城里观察人们如何相互沟通、表达情感，以及他们在看到已有的诸如简化的天气图标这样的微小图像时会有什么反应。据穰崇说，首批表情符的设计灵感来源于两样东西。第一个是漫画，就是日本的那種连环画或者漫画小说，更确切地说是来自于漫画标记，就是那种只在漫画中使用的表示特定场景、表情或情绪的符号。第二个是象形图画，这是一套用于传递信息或引起公众注意的全球通用符号。

即时满足

能够用数字信息迅速且有效地表达自己（包括实时的情感），可谓我们当今世界人们的基本需求。表情符以一种有趣且独特的方式满足了人们的这种基本需求。难怪日本这个有着表意符号历史底蕴的国家会迅速投入到对这种新兴交流工具的开发中。由于在硬件开发上存在差异，表情符用了十多年的时间才真正进入世界上的其他地方，但看起来这些小可爱们自此就深入人心。表情符使用越来越广泛，也越来越受人们喜欢，在被问及对此有何看法时，穰崇表达了他的兴奋之情：“我希望世上的每一个人都会喜欢使用表情符！”

The Timeline of the Emojis

In the timeline below， discover the history of the well-loved miniature icons.

1999

Limited emojis are available on Japanese mobile phones.

2000

Emojis are included in the release of the i-mode mobile internet platform in Japan.

2006

Google began to convert Japanese emojis to Unicode12） private-use codes， which enables emojis to work on different mobile operating systems. .

2009

The first Unicode characters explicitly13） intended as emoji are added to Unicode 5.2. The majority of the characters come directly from emoji characters used by Japanese mobile phone carriers. Google adds emojis to Gmail.

2010

Unicode 6.0 is the largest release of emojis yet， with 994 extremely small characters including emotions， a pile of poo， families， hearts， animals， clothes， food， city images， clocks and country flags. The emojis begin to pop up on smartphones around the world.

2012

A lucky 13 more round-headed emojis are added to Unicode 6.1.

2014

With Unicode 7.0， more than 100 new diminutives are added， including a tornado， a deserted island and a private eye.

2015

With the addition of Unicode 8.0， the complete emoji library stands at 1，281 characters. The "Face with Tears of Joy" emoji wins the title of "Word of the Year"—the first time a non-word has won top honors. Oxford Dictionaries felt the pictogram "best reflected the ethos14）， mood and preoccupations15） of 2015".

2017

The Emojis Movie by Sony Pictures Animation is due for release this summer. Sony won the rights in July 2015 in a deal reportedly worth almost seven figures， with cowriters Eric Siegel and Anthony Leondis （director of Kung Fu Panda： Secrets of the Masters）， directing.

表情符大事记

下面就是表情符的大事记，一起来看看这些深受大家喜爱的小图标的发展史吧。

1999

部分表情符可在日本生产的手机上使用。

2000

包括表情符在内的i-mode移动互联网平台在日本发布。

2006

谷歌公司开始将日本的表情符转化为Unicode格式的专用代码，这让表情符得以在不同的移动操作系统中都可以使用。

2009

第一批明确用作表情符的Unicode字符被收录在Unicode 5.2版本中。大多数字符直接来自于曾被日本手机用户使用的表情符图标。同年，谷歌公司将表情符加入谷歌邮箱中。

2010

Unicode 6.0版本是迄今为止表情符发布数量最多的一回，当时发布了994个小图标，包括各种表情、一堆便便、家庭成员、爱心、动物、衣服、食物、城市图像、钟表以及各国国旗。接着，表情符开始出现在全球各地的智能手机上。