Have you ever asked yourself, "Why isn't there a vampire emoji?" or "Where is that fairy emoji when I need it?!" If so, it's your lucky day.
With the latest version 10.0 of the Unicode Standard, which launched this month, there are 56 new emoji characters; including vampires, fairies, mermaids and wizards… oh my.
Version 10.0 adds 8,518 characters, for a total of 136,690 characters. These additions include four new scripts, for a total of 139 scripts, as well as the 56 emojis.
The new scripts and characters in Version 10.0 add support for lesser-used languages and unique written requirements worldwide, including:
- Masaram Gondi, used to write Gondi in Central and Southeast India
- Nüshu,used by women in China to write poetry and other discourses until the late twentieth century
- Soyombo and Zanabazar Square, used in historic Buddhist texts to write Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Mongolian
- Syriac letters used for writing Suriyani Malayalam, also known as Garshuni and as Syriac Malayalam
- Gujarati signs used for the transliteration of the Arabic script into Gujarati by Ismaili Khoja communities
- A set of 285 Hentaigana characters used in Japan (historic variants of Hiragana characters)
For the full list of new emojis, click here.
By Pamela Price
