Emoji are more than just cute symbols for teenagers 🧑‍🎤.

They can represent

💡 complex ideas and emotions 🎭

in a single,
compact form 🎯,

or be combined to form 

🧩🌀⚛️
more complex concepts,

or even

📚💫🌠
abstract narratives.

Although easily ambiguous by themselves 😵‍💫, when used as semiotic representations 👀🎨 with specifically defined meaning and purpose (such as by providing a key 🔑 or legend 🗺️), they become as adaptable 🔄, as dynamic 🌪️, and as specific 🔎 as the 26 letters in the alphabet 🔤 or the 10 decimal symbols we use 🔢.

Except that there are currently 3,664 Emoji 😃📈 as per Unicode version 15.0!

Think of Emoji, for a moment, as a number system – 🧮  Emojinary  numbers  🧩📊, if you will.

The decimal system 🔢, the most familiar number system, uses 10 symbols (0️⃣-9️⃣), conveniently corresponding to our 10 human fingers 🙌.

With each place to the left ⬅️, the value it represents is 10 times that of the place to its right ➡️. Hence, we can represent increasingly larger numbers with more digits.

Now, consider a character like Mickey Mouse 🐭, who has only 8 fingers. He might use an octal system 🎱, which relies on 8 symbols (0️⃣-7️⃣), and with each step to the left ⬅️, the value multiplies by eight.

Venturing into the realm of computing, we encounter the binary system 💻, using only 2 symbols (0️⃣-1️⃣), coinciding with the on-off nature of electric signals ⚡. In this system, each additional digit doubles the potential values.

Furthermore, the hexadecimal system 🧙‍♀️, used widely in computer science, employs 16 symbols (0️⃣-9️⃣ and A-F). Each added digit multiplies the number of possible values by 16.

Now, imagine a hypothetical creature from an exotic corner of the universe 🌌👾, having 3,664 appendages or tentacles! They might utilize a vast and vibrant ’emojinary’ number system 🎭. With the 3,664 emoji in Unicode 15.0 🧮🌈, each additional ‘digit’ would multiply the potential representations by 3,664! Such a system could express a virtually endless range of concepts, emotions, and narratives in a few compact symbols.

Just 3 emojinary “digits” 🧮🔢🔣 would already allow for 49,188,818,944 (3,664 x 3,664 x 3664) 🚀 different combinations!

Ethnologue 📚, a comprehensive reference work cataloging all of the world’s known living languages, lists about 7,139 🌏🔢 living languages 🗣️.

Based on known knowledge 🧠📖 and considering the complexities 🧩, a rough estimate of dead written languages 📜💀 could range between 300 to 500. This considers ancient languages with distinct writing systems, variations of those languages, and scripts that have evolved significantly over time to the point where their older versions are considered separate languages 👥🕰️🔍.

However, it’s important to stress that this is a rough estimate 🔮✨, as comprehensive data on this subject is hard to find and interpret 🕵️‍♀️🔭.

According to Merriam-Webster 📚, it has been estimated that the vocabulary of English 🇬🇧📝 includes roughly 1 million words 🎉 (although most linguists would take that estimate with a chunk of salt 🧂, and some have said they wouldn’t be surprised if it is off the mark by a quarter-million) 🤔💭.

So for the sake of this exercise let’s take those values across all languages for all examples.

We know that dead languages 📜💀 would most likely not have had as large a vocabulary as modern languages, but for the sake of simplifying the calculation 🧮 to illustrate our point, let us go with the following:

🌏 = 7,139 (Living languages)
💀 = 500 (Dead languages)
🗣️ = 1,000,000 (Words per language)
📈 = Total words across languages

So;
(🌏 + 💀) * 🗣️ = 📈

Gives us;
📈 = 7,639,000,000

That means we could represent all words in all languages 🌍📜 if we represented each unique word with a three Emoji combination 🧩🔢🔤, and we would still have 41,549,818,944 unused combinations! 🎊💡🌌

Clearly, we can’t just replace words with Emoji 😅 willy-nilly. Unless we know exactly what the agreed upon meaning of an Emoji is 📜🤝🔍, it can easily lead to even greater miscommunication 🗣️❌💥. And let’s be honest, an emojinary number system might be quite a challenge for the human mind 🧠💭🔣.

In the grand tapestry 🖼️ of communication 🗣️💬, Emoji 🧩🎭 have their own distinct place 🏞️✨.

But much like a vibrant piece of art, emojis can convey emotions, concepts, or narratives that can be interpreted differently depending on the viewer and context 🎨🖼️.

To accurately decode the meaning, we might need a key or legend — a set of reference points or a surrounding context 🗺️🔑. This allows us to navigate through the story that the emojis are trying to tell, much like a map that helps us understand unfamiliar terrain 🧭🌐.

👸 Here’s another example:

🎼(👥🏆,👤👫!) We are the champions, my friends! 🎶
🎼(&👥🔁🥊🔚!) And we’ll keep on fighting, till the end! 🎵

Neat right? 😎✅.

We 👥 didn’t even need to represent every word 🗣️📜🚫!

But without us 👥 including the key 🔑 (i.e. the lyrics 🎶📝, in this case), you would most likely not have understood what that meant, and even then, some of you may have needed to take a moment to figure it out 🤔💭❓.

But the same could be said for many coding language syntaxes 🔣 or file formats 📁.

And that’s because file formats are digitally 🖥️ interpreted for the user, and code is understood by a developer 💻 through experience and expertise 🔍, further simplified through integrated development environments that offer features such as syntax highlighting 🌈, autocomplete ✅, and documentation referencing 📄 to facilitate the development process.

We’ll delve deeper next time into the technical and interdisciplinary applications of emoji, but, hopefully, I’ve provided you with some food for thought.

🍲💭

📌 Summary:

Embracing Emojis: Unveiling their Semantic and Numeric Potential in Conceptual Communication 📝🧩🧠💡

We undertake a deep-dive into the transformative potential of emojis in various interdisciplinary contexts, exploring their capacity for emotional expression, numerical representation, and the subsequent opportunities and challenges in the semantic landscape.

1️⃣ 🧑‍🎤💬🧩 Expressing Complex Ideas and Emotions with Emojis
2️⃣ 😵‍💫👀🎨 The Semiotics of Emojis
3️⃣ 🧮🧩📊 Emojinary Numbers: A Numeric System
4️⃣ 👾🎭🌌 The Emojinary Universe: Embracing the Potential
5️⃣ 📚🌏🗣️ Global Language Landscape and Vocabulary Size
6️⃣ 🧮🌍📜🔤 Estimating Total Words Across Languages
7️⃣ 🗣️❌💥 Challenges: Emoji Miscommunication and Cognitive Complexity
8️⃣ 🖼️🗣️💬🧩🏞️✨ Emojis in the Communication Landscape
9️⃣ 🎼👥🏆👤👫 Misunderstandings: A Lyric Example

🔑 Concepts & Emoji-Exploration:
➡️ 🤔💬🔄: Emojis’ adaptability and dynamicity in communication
➡️ 🧠🎭🔤: Emotional and abstract expressions using emojis
➡️ 🗺️🎯🔍: The necessity of keys or legends for emojis decoding
➡️ 🌌🔎📈: The potential of vast combinations in the “emojinary” system
➡️ 🧮🔧🎉: Challenges & innovations in emojis-based communication