They’re calling emojis “hieroglyphs” again and I should be allowed to do a little grievous bodily harm as a treat. The only way you escape is if you can show me examples of a tense system, a nominal phrase, and an adverb using emojis. If not, well, then it’s clobbering time.
Where do we stand on the idea of emojis serving as determinitives (or however its spelled) can an emoji tell me if the sentence is in the past? Not really. But it can help me understand the intent and emotions behind the sentence
(Actually I'm not sure determinitive is the word I'm looking for but its the closest I can think of)
Determinative is the correct word, but no they still cannot be used this way.
Hieroglyphs are used to write only one language Egyptian. There is Old, Middle, and Late Egyptian, but these are all still progressive forms of the same language, even if grammar and spelling different between them. Culturally, the Hieroglyphic signs do not change meaning during this. A 𓀁 sign always means the word has something to do with something going into the mouth or speaking. A 𓄗 sign always comes with words to do with animal legs or certain types of power. They're relatively static.
Emojis are a global script. Anyone in any language can use them to convey an additional emotion or tone, but they do not have global meaning. As I've said before on this post:👌in the anglosphere and several other countries means 'okay', but you use that sign with someone from Brazil or various countries in the Middle East and essentially you're telling someone to 'get fucked.' The same goes for 👺 the Japanese Tengu, which, for years before 😈 was introduced, was used in place of 'the devil' as something evil, whereas Tengu are (more recently) troublemakers but more of a mischievous kind and can even be protective. Even 🙂 can have its problems. Many people will interpret it as a smile, that things are good, but some people will interpret it as a sign of dissatisfaction or upset because 😊 is used more commonly where they are.
Beyond cultural issues, the use of emoji to accompany or provide tone to an existing language is inherently personal. An individualistic use of a script, varying from person to person in terms of meaning and understanding, can never be considered to be a language in and of itself. It's not standardised, each country uses emojis for different meanings, and each subculture within those countries will have different meanings again. Hieroglyphs do not do this because they have standardised meanings.
Finally, we have to address the fact that emojis, while they might have an emotional meaning or represent a physical object, do not have any phonemes attached to them. They are not spoken, they do not have sounds (unless, pedantically, we're saying the letter/number signs do but then they're part of existing scripts and shouldn't be counted). There is the Rebus principle where signs literal meaning can be taken to make them have a sound like 👁️🐝🥬'eye bee leaf' or 'I believe' but that's still only forming a language that exists rather than emojis being a language themselves.
Hieroglyphs on the other hand are logoconsonantal, which means they are logograms (literal depictions of what they are) but also have consonantal value (sounds). For instance, 'house' is written with a sign that represents a bird's eye view of a basic floorplan of an Egyptian house 𓉐. That sign (𓉐) has the consonantal value 'pr' which, on it's own with just that sign reads 'house' (usually with a single stroke (𓏤) to indicate just one). However, the two-consonantal phoneme 'pr' can be used in other words that have nothing to do with a house. For instance: 𓉐𓂋𓂻 'pr' with a mouth sign (that has the consonantal value of 'r') and the walking legs determinative (in this case it is unread because it's a determinative, but it can have the value 'jw' that on it's own means 'to go forth'). Those three signs combined mean 'pr' 'to come'. For evidentiary consistency's sake we'll do another example: 𓅭 this sign on its own, or accompanied by a single stroke 𓅭𓏤, has the consonantal value of sȝ and the meaning of 'duck'. However, combine 𓅭𓏤 with 𓀀 and you get 𓅭𓀀𓏤
Hieroglyphs on the other hand are logoconsonantal, which means they are logograms (literal depictions of what they are) but also have consonantal value (sounds). For instance, 'house' is written with a sign that represents a bird's eye view of a basic floorplan of an Egyptian house 𓉐. That sign (𓉐) has the consonantal value 'pr' which, on it's own with just that sign reads 'house' (usually with a single stroke (𓏤) to indicate just one). However, the two-consonantal phoneme 'pr' can be used in other words that have nothing to do with a house. For instance: 𓉐𓂋𓂻 'pr' with a mouth sign (that has the consonantal value of 'r') and the walking legs determinative (in this case it is unread because it's a determinative, but it can have the value 'jw' that on it's own means 'to go forth'). Those three signs combined mean 'pr' 'to come'. For evidentiary consistency's sake we'll do another example: 𓅭 this sign on its own, or accompanied by a single stroke 𓅭𓏤, has the consonantal value of sȝ and the meaning of 'duck'. However, combine 𓅭𓏤 with 𓀀 and you get 𓅭𓀀𓏤 sȝ 'son'. The man functions as the determinative in son' to separate reading sȝ as 'duck' because the phoneme is the same. Then, if I want to be really thorough, I can just write 𓀀𓏤 's' 'man' if I take away the 𓅭. For a full reading I'd add a one consonant sign 𓊃 's' and then the man would go back to just being a determinative.
All this is without getting into grammar with the use of pronouns, suffixes, and tenses, which I could do, but I think I've made my point pretty clear.
Emojis are a script of ideograms that represent emotions or a literal object rather than sounds, though they can be manipulated using the Rebus principle. The meaning of each of them is heavily dependent on the users current language, country of origin, and cultural background. Hieroglyphs are a logoconsonantal script, where each sign has consonantal value or phonemes that when stood alone or grouped with other signs form words within the various stages of the Ancient Egyptian language. These meanings are set, they do not differ over various parts of Egypt, and are not dependent on the individual using them.
That is why emojis and hieroglyphs are not remotely the same thing.
