Are Emojis Language?

Whether you love them or hate them, you have to admit, emojis have taken over. Following the latest update by the Unicode Consortium, the body that dictates language on digital devices, there are now 1,085 officially-recognized emojis in circulation. Five years after their introduction in the United States, emojis have started to dominate messaging and social media apps. Swyft estimates that 6 billion of the emotion pictures are sent in messaging apps every day, and Instagram reports that over half of all Instagram posts include at least one emoji.

We can all agree they’re popular, but here’s a different question: do emojis count as language, modern hieroglyphics, or some other form of pictorial communication?

What Makes a Language?

It can be difficult to decide when a new mode of communication is a “language” rather than a dialect within a larger linguistic landscape. Often, things considered by some as discreet languages are in fact creoles or dialects that do not differ enough to branch completely from parent languages. However, as with many aspects of culture, new innovations emerge, and occasionally these are distinguished as entirely new languages.

According to Johanna Nichols, former professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley, the gold standard for distinguishing languages is “mutual intelligibility.” In other words, if a speaker of one language and a speaker of another try to converse, will they understand one another? If the answer is “yes,” the second speaker is using some sort of dialect. If the answer is “no”, that person has created or adopted a new language.

However, the mutual intelligibility concept doesn’t always provide a clear picture of how languages relate to each other, since some dialects seem more different from each other than certain groups of languages do. For example, Americans might have trouble understanding Southeast Asian pidgin English speakers, but Spanish speakers might catch the gist of something said in Portuguese. Also, this does not help us to determine whether an entirely new communicative system is, in fact a language. Are emojis merely images that might be interpreted differently by different groups of people? Or are they universal?

If you’re interested in learning more about how languages become officially recognized, check out this list of books on the evolution of English.

Communicative System vs. Hieroglyphics vs. Language

Before we get to emojis as language proper, let’s debunk one misconception—emojis are not hieroglyphics. Although they may represent a shift back toward more representative characters, they function very differently from hieroglyphics. As prominent Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch pointed out in a recent SXSW presentation on the subject, language has moved from more concrete characters to less concrete versions, allowing humans to communicate abstract concepts.

Unfortunately, most signs point to emojis lacking the characteristics of a true language. For example, when given a string of emojis, two people will not always interpret them the same way. Additionally, emojis cannot be conjugated or combined in ways that function like a true linguistic system, meaning that, although they are a helpful bunch of symbols, they aren’t “a particular, conventionalized system for representing abstract meaning, like English or Japanese or ASL.”

One thing is for certain: emojis are a communicative system. They allow people to communicate emotions, actions, or impressions that they don’t feel they can express in text. The Oxford English Dictionary supports this analysis of emojis, and cites it as the reason they made the “tears of joy” emoji their Word of the Year in 2015.

The Verdict? It’s Complicated

If you adhere to the strictest definition of language, emojis definitely do not make the cut. However, if you define a language as “a system of words or signs that people use to express thoughts and feelings to each other,” emojis have a chance. Whether or not they can replace English or any other formal language, emojis have evolved into a meaningful communicative system, allowing users worldwide to express feelings, thoughts, and ideas in new visual ways.

It may be some time before a major linguistic authority like Merriam-Webster or the OED comes to a definitive verdict about emojis as a distinct language. In the meantime, it’s interesting to track patterns in our usage of emojis. Are we using them instead of words? To replace phrases? As simple visual aids to our written texts?

Whether or not emojis are a language in their own right, they represent an interesting and deeply entertaining evolution of language worldwide. And that’s not a bad thing. ?

Stationary vs. Stationery—What’s the Difference?

• Stationary means “fixed,” “immobile,” or “unchanging.”
• Stationery refers to paper, matching envelopes, and writing implements.

---

At a glance, stationary and stationery look very much alike. But they couldn’t be further apart in meaning and function. So confusing them—and they’re often confused—is a noticeable mistake.

What Does Stationary Mean?

When something is fixed, immobile, or not subject to change, we can use the adjective stationary to describe it:

I don’t care much for the stationary bike; I prefer riding a real one.

It stands in the square as a stationary reminder of the march of history.

What Does Stationery Mean?

Stationery refers to the collection of papers, envelopes, and other things you’d use to write letters or cards:

The hotel offered complimentary stationery to guests who wished to write letters.

She wanted to write a letter, but the drawer where she stored her stationery was empty.

Examples

When you go to the gym and hop on the stationary bike you’re literally spinning your wheels.

Forbes

Is there a fate worse than having to host a pirate-themed stationary cruise?

A.V. Club

At the “Left & Write” stationery store you can purchase a variety of unique and stylish cards that cater to the season and the occasion.

The Review

So how has Smiggle, the colourful, kid-friendly stationery retailer founded in Melbourne 13 years ago, turned into a global powerhouse?

NEWS

As Well As Comma

The phrase as well as creates one of those situations where you may have to make a judgment call about comma usage. As a general rule, you don’t need a comma before as well as.

As Well As

As well as means “in addition to.”

Please proofread for spelling mistakes as well as grammatical errors.

The sentence above means that you should proofread for both spelling and grammatical errors.

You can also use as well as to make a simple comparison.

I don’t sing as well as Adele does.

This sentence means that Adele sings better than I do.

Comma Before As Well As

Most of the time, you don’t need a comma before as well as. Using a comma turns the thing you’re talking about with as well as into an aside–information that’s less important than the rest of the sentence. That’s where the judgement call comes in. You have to decide whether the things you’re connecting with as well as are equally important or not.

Timmy, as well as Tommy, is a stickler about punctuation.

.

In this sentence, as well as Tommy is an aside–something that could go in parentheses. Writing the sentence this way de-emphasizes Tommy and puts the focus on Timmy. Notice that you need one comma before the phrase and one comma after it.

Also notice that this sentence needs the verb is, not are, even though you mentioned both Timmy and Tommy. That’s because as well as is not the same as and. It can’t create a compound subject.

If the part about Tommy is important, the best thing to do is get rid of the commas and change as well as to and.

Timmy and Tommy are sticklers about punctuation.

When you’re making a simple comparison, you should never include the comma.

I don’t sing, as well as Adele does.

What Is Comradery?

• Comradery is a spirit of friendship and community between two people or a group of people.
• Camaraderie is the more popular spelling, but comradery is an acceptable alternate.

Comradery is easy to find among the members of a winning team. Victorious teammates might high-five each other and recount the highlights of the game. Success creates a bond for the players that often continues off the court. But what is happening on the opposite side of the court? You may notice the defeated team going through a comradery ritual of their own. Instead of celebrating, they might be consoling one another and commending each other for trying their best. What is comradery?

Comradery or Camaraderie

You might already be wondering whether comradery is the same as camaraderie, so let’s address that issue first. Camaraderie came to English from French around 1835. In French, camarade was the word for a roommate or a companion. It you trace camarade back further, you will find that French got it from Old Spanish, which borrowed it from Latin! Camera is the Latin term for chamber, a room where you sleep or spend a lot of time. What about comradery? It came from comrade, a derivative of the the same Middle French word that inspired camaraderie. Around 1879, some writers (no doubt influenced by the pattern established by words like citizenry) began adding the -ry suffix to comrade to form comradery.

The next question is, which one is right? Camaraderie? Comradery? Is one way of writing the word more correct than the other spelling? Dictionaries list both spellings, so they are both correct. However, if you look at the frequency of use for each word, you will find that camaraderie is more than forty times as common as comradery in print sources. Which form you choose depends on your preference, but you should take your audience into consideration. Which spelling will be the most familiar or understandable for them?

Be careful of misspellings. It’s easy to confuse the two forms if you are not careful. The most common wrong spellings on the web are mishmashes of the two correct spellings:

comaraderie, comraderie, comrodery, cameradery

The Pronunciation of Comradery

Camaraderie sounds like kahm-rah-duh-ree. Some speakers pronounce comradery as kom-rad-ree. Therefore, though camaraderie and comradery are interchangeable in meaning, transcriptionists must write the version used by the speaker. They must listen carefully to the vowels and number of syllables to distinguish comradery from camaraderie.

Comradery Definition and Meaning

There’s no difference in the meaning of camaraderie and comradery. Comradery is a spirit of friendship and community between two people or a group of people. The memberse of the group are comfortable around each other, and they support each other. This word is often applied to sports teams or to groups of soldiers. Let’s learn from some quotes about team comradery.

Examples of Team Comradery

The girls are all talking and laughing, trying to get pumped up and for just one small sliver of a moment, I stop. Taking it all in because this is something I’ve really missed over the last year. The comradery of a team. The sisterhood of hockey players. Girls who have your back. —Jennifer Sucevic, Stay

It’s comradery, it’s team building, it’s fun to come out here and just push yourself to the limit. The proceeds stay local and people know it and and people come out and push themselves. —WIVB.com

I loved the world of roller derby because I thought it was such an empowering metaphor, that you get out there and do it. It’s such a rocker, athletic, capable, cool exhibitionist sport; it’s about this great sort of camaraderie. — Drew Barrymore

Other Instances of Comradery

The silence that falls between them is a comfortable one. He longs to reach over and touch her, but he resists, fearful of destroying the delicate camaraderie they are building. He steals glances instead, watching the way the light falls over her skin. —Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

This good fellowship—camaraderie—usually occurring through the similarity of pursuits is unfortunately seldom super-added to love between the sexes, because men and women associate, not in their labors but in their pleasures merely. —Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd

Political Definition and Usage of Comradery

As you learned earlier, comradery derives from comrade. A comrade is a fellow member of a group, an associate, or a person who does the same activities that you do. However, around the nineteenth century, members of the Communist party began to refer to each other as comrades. According to an article in the South China Morning Post, “consolidation among party members and . . . the idea of equality” were the characteristics of the term that attracted the attention of the Communist Party. Today, comrade may carry a political connotation—in particular, it may imply that someone has extremely leftist views on issues. However, the same connotation doesn’t necessarily carry over to the use of comradery, unless the context suggests a political affiliation. Here are some quotes featuring comrade from popular media sources:

China Seeks to Improve Ties With ‘Comrade’ Vietnam” —The Wall Street Journal

At the [White House Correspondents’ Dinner], Obama played on that comparison, calling Sanders his “comrade,” a term often associated with the communist Soviet Union. —Bustle

Air show pilots performed an aerial salute Saturday to their comrade who died after his World War II-era plane crashed in the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey a day earlier. —NBCNewYork.com

How to Use Comradery

Now that you’ve seen how writers use it, how can you use comradery in a sentence? Comradery is a noun, so it can be the subject or the object of the sentence.

Comradery is what kept the coworkers on good terms during a challenging work assignment.

Soldiers who have fought together against a common enemy form a comradery that is like no other feeling in the world.

What about making the noun plural? Comradery and camaraderie are noncount nouns, so you can’t make them plural by adding an S. They don’t have plural forms.

After ten years of marriage, there was great comradery between the husband and wife.

A little bit of camaraderie goes a long way.

Camaraderie/Comradery Synonyms

What words are like comradery? Studying them can help you get a deeper understanding of what it really means. Notice how these near synonyms relate to comradery:

• Bonhomie, like camaraderie, has French origins. Bon means good and homme means man. Bonhomie is a good-natured, friendly manner.
• A brotherhood is a group of people engaged in the same trade or who have the same qualities or interests. It also refers to fellowship.
• Conviviality is friendliness or agreeableness.
• Companionship is fellowship, especially the type of fellowship that comes from being in the company of someone else.
• Comradeship is a sense of friendship with others who share the same goals.
• Friendship is an intimate or friendly relationship.
• Intimacy is a close bond with another person, often accompanied by feelings of affection and familiarity.
• Togetherness is warm fellowship.

Camaraderie/Comradery Antonyms

On the other side of the coin, antonyms show you what comradery is not. The list includes some pretty gloomy words that should help you appreciate the positivity of comradery. Here are the top four opposites.

• Bad blood is an idiomatic expression that refers to bitter feelings between two people or groups.
• Dislike is a feeling of antagonism or hatred for someone.
• Forlornness is a feeling of isolation and alienation.
• Loneliness is a feeling of solitude and isolation.
• Lonesomeness is a painful feeling of solitariness, depression, or sadness caused by a lack of companionship.

Comradery vs. Morale

Another term you hear associated with teams, groups, and the military is morale. What is the relationship between comradery and morale? Morale is the general emotion or mental state of the members of a group. Low morale would indicate that the individuals in the group have low spirits. They might feel discouraged, depressed, or sad. High morale means that individuals are feeling well and happy. If comradery is absent, morale is likely to be low. Travis Valentine, a blogger, explains: “Low morale isn’t ideal, but the negative effects it has can be overcome with good camaraderie because good camaraderie can’t be beat.” Do you see the relation?

For a sports team, a sense of comradery and morale is highest while celebrating a win. However, a defeat can also draw a team closer together. Because soldiers spend a lot of time in each other’s company and go through intense experiences together, they often develop lifelong friendships characterized by goodwill and friendliness. Any group that spends a lot of time pursuing a common goal can cultivate the quality of comradery.

Comradery is an alternate spelling of camaraderie that carries the same meaning of friendly intimacy among members of a group. To use the term properly, you will have to remember that it’s a non-count noun. Learning so much about comradery places you among a select few who know its origins. So if you see comradery properly used in writing, you may feel an instant bond with the author!

Funny Phrases: Nip It in the Bud

The phrase nip it in the bud means to stop something before it gets going. You’ve probably heard it used in this way: Nip that bad habit in the bud before it gets out of control!

What does this phrase actually mean? Nip means to remove by pinching, biting, or cutting with two meeting edges of anything; to clip. A bud is a newly formed leaf or flower that has not yet bloomed. To nip something in the bud means to pinch off a newly formed leaf or flower before it has a chance to grow. When this literal meaning is translated to a figurative sense, it means stopping something before it has a chance to progress further.

People have been saying nip it in the bud as far back as the 1600s, and the phrase is still a popular idiom today. If you want to learn more about idioms and odd phrases, read this post about the hair of the dog.