WEBVTT

00:00:06.328 --> 00:00:09.320
Narrator: A museum of Egyptology is probably the last

00:00:09.345 --> 00:00:11.243
place you'd expect to see emoji

00:00:11.250 --> 00:00:12.369
covering the walls,

00:00:12.917 --> 00:00:14.735
but Shirly Ben-Dor Evian,

00:00:14.816 --> 00:00:16.252
curator of this museum,

00:00:16.346 --> 00:00:18.329
thinks it's the perfect place for them.

00:00:19.745 --> 00:00:21.899
Shirly Ben-Dor Evian: My goal as an Egyptologist

00:00:22.262 --> 00:00:24.569
is to show to people

00:00:25.147 --> 00:00:25.610
that

00:00:26.555 --> 00:00:29.566
something which is ancient is still relevant

00:00:30.234 --> 00:00:31.433
to their lives today.

00:00:35.422 --> 00:00:38.171
Narrator: The exhibition shows the striking similarities

00:00:38.196 --> 00:00:39.832
between the characters used in the

00:00:39.857 --> 00:00:42.097
ancient writing system of hieroglyphics

00:00:42.319 --> 00:00:44.157
and some of our present-day emoji.

00:00:50.953 --> 00:00:51.908
Shirly Ben-Dor Evian: Picture writing

00:00:54.711 --> 00:00:55.608
enables us

00:00:56.409 --> 00:00:57.598
to express

00:00:57.809 --> 00:01:00.217
the correct meaning of words,

00:01:00.906 --> 00:01:03.890
and this is something that the ancient Egyptians knew

00:01:04.844 --> 00:01:06.166
and modern users

00:01:06.578 --> 00:01:08.111
of mobile

00:01:09.969 --> 00:01:11.968
communications also know.

00:01:13.733 --> 00:01:15.588
If you put it in a picture,

00:01:16.808 --> 00:01:18.100
it becomes very clear

00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:20.393
to the other person.

00:01:22.397 --> 00:01:25.502
Narrator: Hieroglyphs and emoji have a number of similarities,

00:01:25.721 --> 00:01:27.849
but there are also profound differences

00:01:27.874 --> 00:01:29.135
between the two systems.

00:01:29.776 --> 00:01:30.879
Unlike emoji,

00:01:31.008 --> 00:01:32.432
hieroglyphics were used as a

00:01:32.457 --> 00:01:34.546
complete written language in which any

00:01:34.571 --> 00:01:36.133
concept could be expressed.

00:01:36.555 --> 00:01:39.019
It took years of training to become a scribe,

00:01:39.257 --> 00:01:41.080
the only people in ancient Egypt

00:01:41.105 --> 00:01:43.669
authorized to use the complex writing system.

00:01:47.382 --> 00:01:50.738
Emoji were invented in Japan in the late 1990s

00:01:50.763 --> 00:01:53.240
as a kind of shorthand for simple concepts

00:01:53.265 --> 00:01:54.945
and a way to articulate the spirit

00:01:54.970 --> 00:01:56.267
in which something is said.

00:01:56.959 --> 00:01:58.525
As anyone who has ever tried

00:01:58.528 --> 00:02:00.597
to write a sentence in emoji will know,

00:02:00.794 --> 00:02:03.568
they aren't designed to communicate complete ideas.

00:02:04.367 --> 00:02:07.482
However, linguists say we currently use emoji

00:02:07.507 --> 00:02:09.725
like a very early pidgin language

00:02:09.993 --> 00:02:12.059
(that's a language that develops between two

00:02:12.084 --> 00:02:14.374
communities who have no common language).

00:02:15.141 --> 00:02:17.736
Pidgin languages rely on simple strategies to

00:02:17.761 --> 00:02:19.604
communicate more subtle meanings.

00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:20.778
For example,

00:02:20.913 --> 00:02:22.074
in a pidgin language,

00:02:22.117 --> 00:02:24.326
if there is no word for "very,"

00:02:24.516 --> 00:02:25.908
we just repeat the word.

00:02:26.385 --> 00:02:27.773
And in the case of emoji,

00:02:27.867 --> 00:02:29.179
we repeat the image.

00:02:31.339 --> 00:02:33.594
Emoji were intended to be universal,

00:02:33.789 --> 00:02:36.802
but in fact, our use of emoji internationally

00:02:36.827 --> 00:02:39.325
has already developed into separate languages,

00:02:39.350 --> 00:02:40.840
according to some experts.

00:02:43.352 --> 00:02:45.653
This London translation agency has

00:02:45.678 --> 00:02:48.541
even begun to employ emoji translators.

00:02:50.344 --> 00:02:51.449
Jurga Zilinskiene: We need to understand that

00:02:51.474 --> 00:02:54.329
certain expressions, that we probably take it for granted,

00:02:54.629 --> 00:02:56.738
we'll think that it's absolutely normal

00:02:56.763 --> 00:02:58.499
in the European context,

00:02:58.524 --> 00:03:00.698
but then if you travel to Latin America

00:03:00.723 --> 00:03:02.300
or if you travel to the Middle East,

00:03:02.512 --> 00:03:03.709
the meaning changes.

00:03:04.319 --> 00:03:06.200
Narrator: Even commonly used symbols like

00:03:06.227 --> 00:03:08.432
the smiley face can have a double meaning.

00:03:08.814 --> 00:03:10.526
It means "simple pleasure" or

00:03:10.551 --> 00:03:12.118
"happiness" in the U.S.,

00:03:12.351 --> 00:03:15.707
but it can signify distrust or disbelief in China.

00:03:16.309 --> 00:03:18.264
How our use of emoji will evolve

00:03:18.265 --> 00:03:19.807
in the years ahead is unknown,

00:03:20.039 --> 00:03:21.772
but Shirley Ben-Dor Evian

00:03:21.797 --> 00:03:24.196
speculates that we'll be using them more.

00:03:25.406 --> 00:03:26.414
Shirly Ben-Dor Evian: And if

00:03:27.002 --> 00:03:30.007
emoji at some point as a writing system

00:03:31.414 --> 00:03:34.632
will try to be a writing system complete,

00:03:34.657 --> 00:03:35.975
a full writing system

00:03:36.906 --> 00:03:37.914
like hieroglyphs -

00:03:39.041 --> 00:03:40.635
that you can write poetry

00:03:41.102 --> 00:03:42.373
and literature

00:03:42.844 --> 00:03:45.205
and historical records and all that.

00:03:45.602 --> 00:03:46.609
If emoji

00:03:47.302 --> 00:03:49.296
will want to go that way,

00:03:50.114 --> 00:03:54.555
well, the best place to go look for, uh, linguistic solutions

00:03:55.227 --> 00:03:57.129
would be ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.