Frisian flag emoji proposed for future emoji release
In a short document, a Frisian flag emoji is proposed to represent the Frisian language.
A new proposal seeks to add a Frisian flag emoji to the existing emoji standard.
The short document of just four pages long suggests that a new flag emoji is required to represent the language, which currently has an estimated 500,000 speakers.
Frisian is considered to be the second official language of the Netherlands - and it stems from Germanic languages. One of it’s closest language relative is English.
As the proposal points out, the Frisian language does have an online presence and is available via Google Translate, Wikipedia and even Facebook. There is even a Frisian supported Swiftkey keyboard.
An image of the emoji is then displayed, which is represented by the flag of Friesland, which features a blue and white striped pattern. Heart shaped objects sit in the white stripes - and these are not hearts as the shape would suggest - but they are in fact lily pads.
Inclusion factors are then taken into consideration; while the proposer doesn’t specify an expected usage level, the document does highlight research into social media for poential usage of the Frisian flag emoji.
It’s estimated that 20% of Frisian speakers use Whatsapp and that 60% of that number use it regularly. As an estimate, this could mean 100,000 potential users of the Frisian flag emoji and potentially 60,000 active users.
Currently, there are over 200 emoji flags which consist primarily of country flags and more quirky options like the pirate flag emoji. In terms of location of the Frisian Flag emoji, the document suggests that it would be available as part of a five symbol sequence.
If successful, the new flag could be added to a future version of emoji after Unicode 11.0 rolls out and after the final candidates for Unicode 12.0 are determined.
