Aren't emojis pictograms and ideograms but not usually logograms? They're direct depictions of concepts, not usually direct stand-ins for words like logograms are.
Better examples of logograms in English I think are &, $, %, @,+,=, etc. We actually have a bunch we use all the time.
Specifically they said 'Kanji', though, so I think they're talking more about the actual character structure of :.|:;.
It's a reference to an entry in the webcomic series Ctrl+Alt+Del. The female lead has suffered a miscarriage, and this particular entry in the comic, titled Loss, depicts her boyfriend's journey through the hospital, entering the front door alone, talking to the receptionist, talking to the doctor, then standing at her bedside.
Ctrl+Alt+Del competes (competed?) with Penny Arcade, it's normally a lighthearted junk food entertainment kind of webcomic aimed at a gamer audience, that SUDDENLY slammed into very heavy material, and then SUDDENLY slammed back out of it. The comic became very widely mocked for the tone whiplash, and one notable form of mockery was making increasingly minimalistic representations of it, often with a "you just lost the game" kind of intention, ie how minimalistic can you go while still reminding others of the comic. A common depiction might be I Ii II I_ (one man standing, a man standing and a woman sitting, so she's shorter, two men standing at equal height, and then a man standing and a woman lying down) but now :.|:; is even more condensed while maintaining the four panel arrangement.
This is a meme from 2008; it's been going around awhile. So to those who have been long familiar with the meme that graphic kind of works like a hieroglyph or kanji character; it's a very simplified depiction of something that carries a sound/concept. You kind of read it as the word "Loss."
Well, no. It wouldn't be the first kanji of English. Kanji is the Japanese pronunciation of 漢字 (hanzi), where 漢 means han/China and 字 means character/letter. Ergo, it makes no sense to call it "the English language's first and only Chinese character."
If you need to use a Japanese word to describe this, then 絵文字 (e mo ji; picture, character/symbol) fits better, but we already have several words for that, like pictogram or pictograph. One could argue that smileys fall into this category as well. So perhaps it's a smiley.
Learning random cool stuff like this is part of why I like lemmy, and why I used to like reddit. Please don't shut down constructive contributions with low effort snark. And before you use your line on me, if I were fun at parties, I would get off lemmy and go to parties.
There is a difference between "btw etymological this used to mean that but since X we use it in other contexts as well" and "no, you are wrong". The difference is one is fun at parties, the other is not.
100 replies
Wait it's all punctuation???
:.|:;Ohh my god
Oh I’m stealing that
Listen here you little shit
:3
FTFY
I'm so fucking made. But so fucking happy that this is still happening lol
I read it as "I'm at a loss for words." right off the bat before I even realized what it was.
Clearly I have ascended to a higher plane of meme-istance
Congratulations, you are now allergic to grass.
:.|:;Outstanding work, I will be using this
"first and only Kanji".
If English had other logograms, I 🤔 what they'd be?
🤔💡😒
©️®️™️
(.)(.)
🅱️
8==>~
Aren't emojis pictograms and ideograms but not usually logograms? They're direct depictions of concepts, not usually direct stand-ins for words like logograms are.
Better examples of logograms in English I think are &, $, %, @,+,=, etc. We actually have a bunch we use all the time.
Specifically they said 'Kanji', though, so I think they're talking more about the actual character structure of
:.|:;.People forgetting about "&."
Technically kanji refers to the Japanese writing system, loss is a logogram, English already has them (see $ and @)
My bank won't let me see any $.
which works better?
I'd say the first looks closest to a real glyph
The last one looks closest to something I'd be arsed to scribble tho
:.|:;HOLY SHIT:.|:;I can be trusted with this
If you couldn’t, I’d be at a
:.|:;for wordsIt's Loss
You're at a loss?
I second this. I get it's all punctuation and that's great but why does that symbol mean "loss"
It's a reference to an entry in the webcomic series Ctrl+Alt+Del. The female lead has suffered a miscarriage, and this particular entry in the comic, titled Loss, depicts her boyfriend's journey through the hospital, entering the front door alone, talking to the receptionist, talking to the doctor, then standing at her bedside.
Ctrl+Alt+Del competes (competed?) with Penny Arcade, it's normally a lighthearted junk food entertainment kind of webcomic aimed at a gamer audience, that SUDDENLY slammed into very heavy material, and then SUDDENLY slammed back out of it. The comic became very widely mocked for the tone whiplash, and one notable form of mockery was making increasingly minimalistic representations of it, often with a "you just lost the game" kind of intention, ie how minimalistic can you go while still reminding others of the comic. A common depiction might be I Ii II I_ (one man standing, a man standing and a woman sitting, so she's shorter, two men standing at equal height, and then a man standing and a woman lying down) but now
:.|:;is even more condensed while maintaining the four panel arrangement.This is a meme from 2008; it's been going around awhile. So to those who have been long familiar with the meme that graphic kind of works like a hieroglyph or kanji character; it's a very simplified depiction of something that carries a sound/concept. You kind of read it as the word "Loss."
Oh fuck I'm old. I was there when it was written.
Great explanation! Crazy how much depth of knowledge one needs to understand some memes nowadays…
But… the post tells you exactly what you need to know to look it up if you’re unfamiliar. Search loss meme.
Can't believe the
:.|:;is still being felt all these years alter:.|:;Edit: cool
There's even a proper stroke order
The hero has read a most unsettling passage
:.|:;If only
treasurecommon sense could staunch the flow of otherworldly corruption...:.|:;Holy shit
Is this loss?
:̶.̶|̶:̶;̶
:.|:;Is this loss?
:.|:;Thanks for the instructions. Have a high five followed by a fist bump.
! !|!!And this one of a nuclear bomb exploding. Followed by a person being hit by the shock wave.
https://www.upsidedowntext.com/unicode
⅋|TWell, no. It wouldn't be the first kanji of English. Kanji is the Japanese pronunciation of 漢字 (hanzi), where 漢 means han/China and 字 means character/letter. Ergo, it makes no sense to call it "the English language's first and only Chinese character."
If you need to use a Japanese word to describe this, then 絵文字 (e mo ji; picture, character/symbol) fits better, but we already have several words for that, like pictogram or pictograph. One could argue that smileys fall into this category as well. So perhaps it's a smiley.
The etymological fallacy...
I bet you're fun at parties
Learning random cool stuff like this is part of why I like lemmy, and why I used to like reddit. Please don't shut down constructive contributions with low effort snark. And before you use your line on me, if I were fun at parties, I would get off lemmy and go to parties.
There is a difference between "btw etymological this used to mean that but since X we use it in other contexts as well" and "no, you are wrong". The difference is one is fun at parties, the other is not.
:.|:;Is this loss?
I'm so fucking
:.|:;I mean what is this meme???Is this loss?
:.|:;:.|:;:.|:;:.|:;:.|:;:.|:;Loss is the new triforce
:.|:;:.|:;Is this loss?
:.|:;:.|:;holy molly
:.|:;This has me at a
:.|:;for words:.|:;:.|:;:.|:;:.|:;:.|:;HOLY SHIT:.|:;I am at a
:.|:;for words.:.|:;I wonder, why they mentioned highlight,
:.|:; and strikethrough works
highlight the text and click the strikethrough button
Ah, that's what they meant
:.|:;Is this spam?No, but this is:
Bloody Vikings
:.|:;:.|:;Holy Shit:.|:;I’m so glad I learned about this
:.|:;:.|:;:.|:;:.|:;:.|:;:.|:;Yoo, new Kanji just dropped!
Is everyone here just taking the piss or does strikethrough not get formatted at old.lemmy?
lemmy clients are bad at consistency
we need commonmark but for lemmy (eg, spoilers)
~
:.|:;~Nuh uh, you gotta do it like this:
AGH IT SHOULD'VE LOOKED RAW, WORKS ON JERBOA, BUT NOT ON THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
it would definitely take millennials to obsess over the most forgettable comic ever.
well it worked. we all know it.
Minecraft brought us
:.|:;... Who'd have thought it.:.|:;