Unicode Emoji 11.0 characters now ready for adoption!

The 157 new Emoji are now available for adoption, to help the Unicode Consortium’s work on digitally disadvantaged languages.

The main goal of the Unicode Consortium is to enable modern software and computing systems to support the widest range of human languages, present and past. There are approximately 7,000 living human languages, but fewer than 100 of these languages are well-supported on computers, mobile phones, and other devices. Adopt-a-character donations are used to improve Unicode support for digitally disadvantaged languages, and to help preserve the world’s linguistic heritage.

For more information on the program, and to adopt a character, see the Adopt-a-Character Page.

And by the way, we have updated charts for the new emoji, with some fixed glyphs (thanks to Emojipedia!).

Support Unicode with an Adopt-a-Character Gift this Holiday Season!

This holiday season you can give a unique gift by adopting any emoji, letter, or symbol — and help support the Unicode Consortium’s mission to enable all languages to be used on computers. ​Three levels of sponsorship​ are available​, starting at $100. With over 128,000 characters to choose from, you are certain to find an appropriate character, for even the most demanding recipient. All sponsors will receive a custom digital badge featuring the adopted character for use on the web and elsewhere. Sponsors at the two highest levels will receive a special thank-you gift engraved with the name you supply and the adopted character.

The program funds work on “digitally disadvantaged” languages, both modern and historic. In 2016 the program awarded a grant to support work on a proposal for the Hanifi Rohingya script. The program has also funded work on Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mayan hieroglyphs.

In its first year, the Adopt-a-Character program has had nearly 400 sponsors. Be part of the next wave, with a worthwhile gift!

For more information on the program, or to adopt a character, see the Adopt-a-Character Page.

Not Just Emoji

Every programmer knows about Unicode. Most other people have no idea what it is, even though they use Unicode every day. Every character you type on your smartphone or laptop — and every character you read — is defined by the Unicode Consortium.

The awareness of the Unicode Consortium has grown recently, with the spread of emoji. But from the news articles, it’s easy to get the impression that emoji is the only thing we do. In reality, there are over 120,000 characters defined, and as you see below, only a small fraction of them are emoji.

For example, this June we’ll be adding 7,500 characters — and of those new characters, fewer than 1% of them are emoji. The majority of the characters are from 6 new scripts: some in modern use, and some historic.

CLDR is the other main project for the Unicode Consortium. It provides the building blocks for supporting a variety of different languages. We’ve just released CLDR v29, and are about to start data submission for v30. Especially if you are a native speaker of a “digitally disadvantaged” language, we encourage you to join the other contributors to CLDR to help with this effort.

The Unicode Consortium is a volunteer-driven 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Some people may work on emoji, while others work on ancient scripts, or Chinese ideographs. Others work on the language support in CLDR, or other projects.

Sponsors

You can help fund the work of the consortium — even if you don’t contribute technically — by adopting your favorite character through the Adopt A Character program.

— Mark Davis, President