This post can be considered a free version of "Ox, House, Stick" or similar alphabet related trivia.
While bored Ptolemaic Egyptian scribes complicated the hieroglyphs beyond all decipherment, Canaaite turquoise miners kept it at simple acrophonics, albeit reassigned to fit their language. This proved more suitable to commercially oriented Phoenicians to keep their records, and Greeks found it better than their Cypriot syllabary, only repurposing some choking and vomitting sounds for vowels. It got into Italy and Roman Catholic Christians spread it everywhere, and it has become the primary script of anglophonic computers with extra letters J, U, and W. However, people with apparently limited vocabulary and erudition started adding pictographs to their shallow minded inscriptions on virtual walls. Their combinations and deliberate misrepresentations slowly start to evolve syntax. Mind you, they are not those pictographs for international signage. All these conlanging attempts like Blissymbolics, Pikto, or 😀💬 are too forced. Also all Esperantidoj to have a worldwide auxlang that is neither English nor some Vulgar Latin descendant (totally ignoring Chinese, Hindi, Arabic, Bengali, Indonesian, ...) have failed, as English, Chinese, Hindi, and Spanish reign supreme. Therefore these childish pictures it is. However, it takes a simple acrophonic assignment to reinvent the alphabet again. Let's return to Sinai and Cannan, hopefully the emoji shapes will be cognate with modern Greek letters.
The origins of Brahmi script are very puzzling. Looking at the shapes, they seem to come from even as far back as the OG Cannaite. That means it couldn't have been derived from Aramaic alone, unlike Kharoshti. It even shows some influence of Indus Valley script, thence dead for at least a millennium. The question is, how the scribes had known these earlier forms? Had trade been booming? Had this script been brewing already before Aramaic became distinct? Clearly these Semitic abjads required extensive modding to fit Indo-European and Dravidian languages, so Brahmi and to a lesser extent Kharoshti at least show some creativity unlike Greek. That letter ordering, much more considerate of phonology, has been even stolen by the Japanese.
However, being intellectually lazy leads to more pragmatic solutions. Greeks could still read Phoenician advertising and price tags, while every Brahmic script felt the necessity to change the number digit forms, invent dozens of ligatures that look nothing like the characters they come from, and place the diacritics totally differently, leading to them being incomprehensibly hard to support in computer fonts. Not even as hard as Han, which is just a sequence of squares, which are actually made of barely 300 components. It may have to do with the ISCII encoding model, which was designed for data processing instead of text displaying. This is also the issue I have with many conlangs - they come with a new script no-one will ever use. Similarly, I don't get why each Indic or West African language gets it's own script. Who the hell will have the time to learn and encode all these? Can't they share? My attempt to simplify Latin to make it work like Hangul has led to basically a pigpen cipher, and is maybe unifiable with Canadian syllabics, which is an abugida that uses rotation instead of marks to encode vowels, proving the 4 vowel system superior. I needed to spend barely an hour to learn Phoenician, having known Greek. If it ain't broke, don't fix it, and if it is broke, don't fix what didn't need a fix.
Proto-Sinaitic Emojad Oxhouse
Chart is based on Wikipedia article Proto-Sinaitic with augmentations from the 2019 Unicode proposal. Also jan Misali's videos "w" and "c" were of some use. It will be a while before Proto-Sianitic gets added into Unicode so I can add a Proto-Sinaitic glyph column.
Couldn't find these emoji, someone please submit them to Unicode Technical Comittee: fence (gate), goad, peg/column, calyx, profile head, empty bow. Also note that not everything is a colorful emoji everywhere, especially on closed platforms. Anticipatively using some Unicode 14.0 emoji.
Symbol name Meaning Emoji Hieroglyph Ph. Greek
'alp ox 🐂 ♉ 𓃾 𓃿 𓄀 𐤀 Α
bayt house 🏠 𓉐 𓉔 𐤁 Β
gaml throwstick 🪃 𓌙 𓌚 𐤂 Γ
dag / digg fish 🐟 ♓ 𓆛 𓆜 𓆝 𓆞 𓆟 𐤃 Δ
dalt door 🚪 𓉿 𐤃 Δ
hillul / he praise / jubilate 🙌 𓀠 𐤄 Ε Η Ͱ
waw / uph hook / fowl 🪝 🐦 🦆 🐓 🦃 🦚 🐔 𓅱 etc. 𐤅 Υ Ϝ
đayp eyebrow 🤨 𓏭 𓏮 𓁻 𓁼 𓂃 𐤆 Ζ
zayn sword / oxhide ingot ⚔️ 🗡️ 𓈔 𓈕 𐤆 Ζ
điqq manacle / fetter 🔗 ⛓️ 🔒 𐤆 Ζ
hasr courtyard / mansion 🏡 𓉗 𓈈 𐤇 Η
hayt thread 🧵 𓎛 𐤇 Η
tab good 👌 👍 ✔️ 🙆 𓄤 𐤈 Θ
zil shade 🌂 🏖 ☂️ ☔ ⛱️ 𓍊 𓋺 𓋼 𐤈 Θ
yad hand / arm 💪 🦾 𓂝 𓂢 𓂣 𐤉 Ι
kap palm 🖐️ 👋 🤚 ✋ 🪬 𓂧 𓂩 𐤊 Κ
lamd goad 🪄 🦯 🩼 𓍈 𓍇 𓍉 𓋿 𐤋 Λ
maym water 🌊 ♒ 💧 💦 〰 𓈖 𓈗 𐤌 Μ
nahaš snake 🐍 𓆓 𐤍 Ν
samk peg / column / support 💈 🕹 🥢 ☤ 🔱 𓊽 𐤎 Ξ Χ Ψ
dag / digg fish? (see above)
3ayn eye 👁️ 👁 👀 𓁹 𓁺 𐤏 Ο Ω
ghabi3 calyx 🧬 𓎛 (ghayn)
pi3t corner / foot 🥐 📯 🕫 🤘 🦶 🦵 🦿 𓂋 𐤐 Π
pu mouth 👄 🫦 𓂋 𐤐 Π
saday plant 🌱 🌿 🪴 🌾 🌽 𓇑 𓇓 𓇗 𓇙 𐤑 Ϻ Ͳ
sirar bag 👜 💰 🛄 🛍️ 𓎤 𐤑 Ϻ Ͳ
qoba needle / monkey 🪡 📌 📍 🖈 🐒 🐵 𓊃 𓎗 𐤒 Ϙ Ϟ
qaw line / cord 🪢 𓊃 𓎗 𐤒 Ϙ Ϟ
ra'š head 🗣️ 🙂 😀 🤬 😬 😂 𓁶 𓁷 𓂉 𐤓 Ρ
šimš sun 🌞 ☀️ 🌣 𓇳 𓇴 𐤔 Σ
sadeh field / land -> saday? 🏜 🏞 🗺 𓇨 𓇩 𓇫 𐤑 Ϻ Ͳ
thann / thad bow / breast / lotus 🏹 ♐ 🧘 💠 💮 🪷 𓇨 𓇩 𓇫 𐤔 Σ
táw mark ❌ ➕ ✖️ 𓏴 𓏵 𓏶 𐤕 Τ
ghinab grape -> ghabi3? 🍇 𓇭 (ghayn)
tha (undeciphered)
"wavy water" (undeciphered)
šin tooth 🦷 𐤔 Σ Φ
Recommended sets for descendant scripts
Phoenician
𐤕 𐤔 𐤓 𐤒 𐤑 𐤐 𐤏 𐤎 𐤍 𐤌 𐤋 𐤊 𐤉 𐤈 𐤇 𐤆 𐤅 𐤄 𐤃 𐤂 𐤁 𐤀
🐂 🏠 🪃 🚪 🙌 🪝 🤨 🧵 👌 💪 🖐 🪄 🌊 🐍 💈 👁️ 🥐 🌱 📌 🗣 🌞 ❌
Hebrew (modernized)
ת ש ר ק צ פ ע ס נ מ ל כ י ט ח ז ו ה ד ג ב א
🐂 🏠 🐫 🚪 🙌 🪝 🗡️ 🤺 🧬 💪 🥄 🎓 🌊 🐟 💈 👁️ 👄 🏹 🐒 🗣 🦷 ❌
Latin
A B C Č D Đ E F G H Ȟ Þ I J K L M N O P Q R Ř S Š T U V W X Y Z Ž Ʒ Ǯ 3 3*
🐂 🏠 🌱 🌿 🚪 🐟 🙌 🐔 🪃 🧵 🧬 👌 💪 🦾 🖐 🪄 🌊 🐍 👁️ 🥐 📌 🗣 😬 🌞 🦷 ❌ 🦆 🐓 🦚 💈 🪝 🤨 🗡️ 🔗 ⛓ 👀 🍇
Greek
Α Β Γ Δ Ε ϜͶ Ζ ΗͰ Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π ϺϠ ϘϞ Ρ Σ Ϛ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω Ͳ
🐂 🏠 🪃 🚪 🙌 🪝 🤨 🧵 👌 💪 🖐 🪄 🌊 🐍 💈 👁️ 🥐 🌱 📌 🗣 🌞 ☼ ❌ 🐦 🦷 🥢 🔱 👀 🌿
Cyrillic (only Russian)
А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Т У Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я
🐂 🏠 🪝 🪃 🚪 * * ⚔ 🤨 💪 🦾 🖐 🪄 🌊 🐍 👁️ 🥐 🗣 💈 ❌ 🐦 🦷 🥢 🌱 🌿 🌞 ☼ 🍇 * * 🙌 * *
* - prepend with 🦾, like 🦾🐂, 🦾🙌, 🦾💪, 🦾👁, 🦾🐦
+ - append 🦾, like 🚪🦾, 🪄🦾, 🐍🦾, 🗣🦾, 💈🦾, ➕🦾
GeSeL (my conlang)
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z '
🐂 🏠 👌 🚪 🙌 🐔 🪃 🧵 💪 🌱 🖐 🪄 🌊 🐍 👁️ 🥐 📌 🗣 💈 ❌ 🐦 🐓 🪝 🌞 🦾 🤨 👀
Note: C is Þ, J can be Klingon S, S is the Samekh sound, W is the Waw sound, Y is a variant of Yod, ' is 3ayn. F and V get KFC'd, like in Latin.
The above charts would be useful only for those who didn't go bonkers with spelling or didn't mutilate the letters to an abhorrent extent. Just Russian Cyrillic was very tough. To reiterate, the emoji selection was based primarily on the letter original shape, pronunciation came second (except GeSeL).
Arabic is a flawed script in terms of available distinct letter forms (had to have dots added), and Square Hebrew doesn't look resilient to bad handwriting. The Phoenicians must have been some geniuses, as no Semitic language has improved on the shapes. However, there are multiple variants of Phoenician, and the best one is the one similar to Greek (Palaeo-Hebrew), not the one with long tails (Punic).
To provide something more useful for modern anglophones, whose spelling consists of more exceptions than rules, below are charts for modern English based on the Shavian (Bri'ish) and Deseret ('Murrican) phonetic alphabet attempts. Note that English vowels are a mess, varying between dialects and accents, and people count diphtongs as distinct vowels due to their origins as long vowels before GVS. Deseret letter names are uncreative. Unifon et al. not considered as it's a Latin mod. Transcribed from Wikipedia and Unicode itself.
Deseret emojibet easyale
Name Emoji Glyph Cognate
easy freeze gear ❄️ ⚙️ 𐐀 𐐨 e
day ale chain 🗓 🌞 ☀️ 🍺 🍻 ⛓️ 𐐁 𐐩 E
far 𐐂 𐐪
for pawn ♟️ 𐐃 𐐫 O
own 𐐄 𐐬 O
nook booze boobs 🍒 𐐅 𐐭 OO
it 𐐆 𐐮 I
bed 🛏️ 𐐇 𐐯
ash bad and 𐐈 𐐰
body 𐐉 𐐱 W
cut up 🔪 ✀ ✂ ✄ ⬆ 𐐊 𐐲 U
book look 📕 📖 📗 📘 📙 📚 👁 👀 𐐋 𐐳 q
either line right island ➡ 🏝️ 👁️ 𐐌 𐐴 ei
soap boat 🧼 🛥️ 𐐍 𐐵
who wheel wave 🛞 ☸️ 〰 whale 𐐎 𐐶 W
yeet yingyang ☯️ 𐐏 𐐷 Y
ha hand head 😃 😅 😆 🖐️ 🗣️ 𐐐 𐐸
pee pita peanut peace 🍆 🫓 🥜 ☮ 𐐑 𐐹 P
bee 🐝 𐐒 𐐺 B
tea ☕ 🫖 🧋 𐐓 𐐻 t
deer 🦌 𐐔 𐐼 D
cheese qi 🧀 𐐕 𐐽 C
jesus jeep jar ginger[U15] ☦ ✝️ 🫙 𐐖 𐐾 g
'kay 👌 👍 ✔️ 𐐗 𐐿
gay 🌈 𐐘 𐑀
fee 💰 💲 💳 💴 💵 💶 💷 𐐙 𐑁 F
victory ✌️ cup 𐐚 𐑂 B
them 𐐛 𐑃 L
thee the 𐐜 𐑄 đ
ass see sea scissors 🍑 ✂️ 𐐝 𐑅 S
zeal 𐐞 𐑆
ash shalom shit ship ✡️ 🛳️ 𐐟 𐑇 a
regime 𐐠 𐑈 S
error ❌ 𐐡 𐑉
elf love 🧝 ❤️ 𐐢 𐑊 L
ember mic 🎙️ 𐐣 𐑋 C
end 𐐤 𐑌 N
length yingyang ☯️ 𐐥 𐑍 N
oi (cunt) 👋 🖐 🙋 🫡 🛢️ 𐐦 𐑎 WI
you 🫵 𐐧 𐑏 OIO
Shavian Emojibet pipetut
OG Name Quikscript Emoji Shavian
peep pipe tobbaco pipe / instrument / bird 𐑐
tot tut Tutankhamon 𐑑
kick kick leg 𐑒
fee fife -> fee 𐑓
thigh thoth leg 𐑔
so sis young woman 𐑕
sure shush check mark / finger over mouth 𐑖
church church ⛪ 𐑗
yea yo-yo 𐑘
hung inkling rope 🪝 𐑙
bib bob book 𐑚
dead deed skull 𐑛
gag gig instrument / bdsm 𐑜
vow valve pinky promise / index+middle / valve? 𐑝
they thither family 𐑞
zoo zoos animal - elephant, zebra, 𐑟
measure zhivago measuring tape / ruler / doctor / nurse 𐑠
judge judge auction hammer 𐑡
woe win-win ✌️ cup 𐑢
ha-ha ha-ha -> ha 𐑣
loll loll -> ha / loitering? / tilted painting 𐑤
mime mime theatre mask / pantomime 𐑥
if if 𐑦
egg ed egg 𐑧
ash ash ✡ / chimney 𐑨
ado ado 𐑩
on on 𐑪
wool wool sheep 𐑫
out out 𐑬
ah ah exclamation mark 𐑭
roar roar lion 𐑮
nun nun 🧕 𐑯
eat eat food / chopsticks 𐑰
age age old man 𐑱
ice ice 🧊 𐑲
up arrow 𐑳
oak oak tree 𐑴
ooze ooze slime / mud / puddle 𐑵
oil oil 🛢️ america 𐑶
awe awl 🌞 𐑷
are are 𐑸
or or 𐑹
air air blowing / fan / radio 𐑺
err -> error 𐑻
array earth planet 𐑼
ear ear ear 𐑽
ian donkey 𐑾
yew yew 🫵 🦄 𐑿
llan saint / cross / 🦙
loch lake / nessie
ax 🪓
exam school?
NATO emojibet alphabravo
Since some words were too abstract, I had to get creative or use older version. Deliberately corrected the misspellings of Alpha and Juliet.
Letter Emoji
Alpha Alpha Romeo / DEC Alpha / transparency / the ox
Bravo / Beta OK / thumb up / house
Charlie / Coca Chocolate / soda
Delta / Data / Dixie / David river / door / computer something / ✡️
Echo speaker, mountains
Foxtrot dance??? / fox
Golf / Gold golf ball / golf stick / gold
Hotel hotel / bed
India / Italy / Indigo some food / rickshaw / poop / blue something
Juliet woman / jew
Kilo weight / scales
Lima / London oyster / lime / limousine / Eye, westminster, tower brigde
Mike / Metro 🎙️ Wazowski / subway
November / Nectar leaf / 9 / 11 / 9/11 / thanksgiving / turkey / flower
Oscar award / cup
Papa / Polka pope / father / another dance
Quebec some food
Romeo boat / row / man
Sierra ⛰️ 🏔️ / casino
Tango dance??? / tanned / solarium
Uniform / Union cop / soldier / link
Victor ✌️
Whiskey / Washington / White glass of whiskey / white house / white square
X-ray / eXtra x-ray
Yankee cheese
Zulu / Zebra african something / zebra
Decimal / Point big dot / sun
Dash running man
Stop octagon
Greek spelling emojibet astirvyron
Very necessary to spell math formulae. Apparently the Greeks seem to like Byron for financing their revolution.
Greek English Emoji
αστήρ star ☀️ ✡️ ✳️ ✴️ ⭐
Βύρων Byron boy / poem / thermometer / sombrero
γαλή cat
δόξα glory praise
Ερμής Hermes man
Ζευς / Ζωή Zeus / Zoe lightning / zombie
Ηρώ Hero superhero
θεά goddess superheroine / woman??? (no deities for Emoji)
ίσκιος shadow
κενόν blank
λάμα blade sword / knife
μέλι honey jar 🫙
ναός church
Ξέρξης Xerxes 300 / king
οσμή smell
Πέτρος Peter rock ⛰️ 🏔️
ρήγας king prince / personwithcrown / crown
σοφός wise lightbulb
τίγρης tiger
ύμνος hymn notes
Φωφώ Fofo girl
χαρά joy
ψυχή soul
ωμέγα big O
Getmanian text-to-speech spelling emojibet otterbee
Names for consonants were based upon their alphabet name. Names for vowels were chosen to feature that vowel in the middle. Names for diphthongs are mostly brownfield. There's not *that* many emoji. In keeping with the Proto-Sinaitic tradition, even this otterbee contains some weapons.
This has to make do with only 10 vowels and a limited number of dedicated diphthongs. I cannot differantiate between E and "AE" properly, so "AE" is merged with EE. You can use Ä or Ë for "AE". Schwa transcribes as ' or as if stressed or E. There are 3 free letters C, Q, and X, pinyinesquely assigned to Kh, Ch, and Sh, respectively. Obvious bias towards Czech accent. Example: Ð beyž hyú impresd ól, inclyúding ð Frenč kwín, wú hrd ðet simfoni egén, jast es yaŋ Óþr wontid.
Name Emoji Letter
up / otter / onion ⬆️ 🦦 🧅 A
yarn / star 🧶 ✡️ ✳️ ✴️ ⭐ Á AA
bee / beaver 🐝 🦫 B
cheese church chain chipmunk ⛪ ⛓️ 🐿️ Č CH Q
deer 🦌 D
dharma ☸ Đ DH
bed / bet / egg 🛌 🛏️ 🥚 E
bad/sad/mad/land // again/chair/air 🪑 É EE
FFFFFFFUUUUU fee fox fog 🦊 🌫️ F
ghee / gay / garlic / gun 🧄 🔫 G
age / heli / helmet / hedgehog / hot 🔞 🚁 🪖 🦔 🌡️ 🌶️ H
loch Ȟ KH C
if I
eagle / beetle / gear / freeze 🦅 🪲 ⚙️ ❄️ Í II
jay / giraffe / jar / ginger[U15] 🦒 🫙 J
'kay / kebab / key 🥙 ✔️ 🗝️ K
elm / elk / elf / hell / llama / love / left 🧝 🦙 ❤️ ⬅️ L
'em / milk / man / mango 🥭 🥛 M
hen nest hay 🪹 🪺 N
length/sing/donger/bong/gong/king/wing[U15] 🤴 🫅 Ŋ NG
?on / old 🧓👴👵🧔 O
door / ore / more / bore / pawn 🚪 ♙ ♟ Ó OO
pee/pie/pita/peanut/peace/pickaxe/pump/pencil 🍆 🥧 🫓 🥜 ☮️ ⛏️ ⛽ ✏️ ✒️ 🖊️ 🖋️ P
are / rocket / rifle / rock 🚀 🙬 🥆 🪨 ⛰️ 🏔️ R
bird 🐦 RR (vocalic)
ass / see / sea / scissors / sun 🍑 ✂️ ☀️ S
shit / ship / shark / shrimp / shrine 🚢 🛳️ ⛴️ 🛳 🦈 🦐 ⛩️ Š SH X
tea / t-rex / tent ☕ 🫖 🧋 🦖 ⛺ 🏕️ T
broth / thorn Þ TH
book / look / wood 🪵 U
oops / ooze / boobs / goose[U15] 🍒 UU
vee / victory ✌️ V
we/wheel/double you/waffle/whiskey/window 🛞 🧇 🥃 🪟 〰 🌬️ W
why / wide / yeehaw / yoyo 🤠 🪀 Y
zebra / zombie 🦓 🧟 Z
measure Ž ZH
eye / island / ice / write / right 👁️ 🏝️ 🧊 ✍️ ➡️ AY
ale / razor / scale / plane ⚖ ✈️ 🛩️ EY
ion / maior / ius / donkey[U15] IY
oicunt / oil / toilet / oyster 🛢️ 🚽 🦪 OY
gooey UY
owl mouth down ⬇️ AW
euro EW
pew 🔫 IW
oat / boat / lotion / soap / envelope / hole 🛥️ 🧴 🪙 🧼 ✉️ 🕳️ OW
uwu UW
Extra emojis, mainly with presentation sequences:
🌍🌎🌏🌕🌜🌫🌬🍸🍽🎗🎙🎛🎞🎬🏄🏆🏊🏌🏔🏘🏚🏜🏞🏳🐈🐕🐯👂👆👇👈👉👎👽💣💳💻💿💾📪📫📬📭🔈🔍🔒🔓🕶🕸🖕🖖🖥🖼🗑🗝🚔🚲🚹🚺🚼🛣🛤🛥