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❮ ❯

Welcome to Iconlang!

Iconlang is a constructed language exploring the power of symbolism: it uses almost only emoji and there is no fixed pronunciation.

What might seem strange at first has some unique advantages: ☀️ is the sun, ⛰️ is a mountain and 🌊 is a wave – no matter how you pronounce it or where you come from. This allows Iconic to be a truly international language, accessible to almost anyone!

Also – why think in words if you can think in pictures? The oldest civilizations in the world based their writing on pictures for thousands of years: think of Egyptian hieroglyphs, Babylonian cuneiform, Chinese characters or Maya writing. Clearly, there is some magic in the directness of images. Most importantly though, expressing onself with pictures is pretty fun!

Over the course of this website I would like to convince you that one can, in principle, express anything with readily available emoji icons.

If you want to give it a try, check out the:

• Language guide, which explains the rules of the language.
• Material, which provides reading material for practice and demonstration.
• Online converter, which allows you to translate English words into emoji.

Iconlang aspires to be a useful tool for art and communication, allowing anyone to express anything symbolically. Let us embark together on a journey to discover a new way of language! 🙂

Tiemo Benedikt Schröder

Updates (2026)

• 09-03📆 Comprehensive update:
  • new banner, language cards and portrait
  • slight grammar changes for the sake of simplicity and clarity
  • big vocabulary update to make it more consistent and extensive
  • updated language guide with new introduction, comments and Anki decks
  • faster and independent online converter without server connection
  • removed the AutoHotkey script since it was difficult to maintain
  • removed the comics since they were difficult to maintain
  • vocabulary tooltips for the material section
  • rewritten fables with one fable exchanged
  • dedicated the language to the public domain, see copyright

Updates (2023)

• 07-29📆 Grammar: simplified rules 14,15,18,29,33
• 07-03📆 Website restructuring with new language guide.
  Grammar: prefixes changed to 🔼 more and 🔽 less. Ordinal numbers may now start with #.
• 06-24📆 Grammar: new ⏩ plural, s suffix for added convenience. Cleared up some ambiguities concerning adjectives. Rhetorical questions are now ❓❓ ??.
• 06-05📆 Grammar: ➕ also and ➖ noteven are now only prefixes. The 👍 may and 👎 maynot verb modifiers have been changed to ✔️ yes and 🙅 no to avoid confusion with 👍 good and 👎 bad. 🤯📏 toomuch is now only a prefix like 🙂📏 enough and 😧📏 notenough. ♾️⚖️ most is now ⏫ most and ♾️⚖️🤏 least is now ⏬ least. The ♾️❗ anything pronoun is now ❗❓ whatever.
• 05-14📆 Grammar: adjective nominalization now mostly via ⭐ * instead of 🤲⭐.
• 05-09📆 Grammar: the subject marker ☝️ sub is now an optional emphasis.
• 04-27📆 New Dictionary. Moved license to About.
• 04-27📆 Grammar: 🙂📏 easy and 😧📏 hard1 are now normal groups.
• 04-18📆 Added an FAQ.
• 04-15📆 Release of 20 Language Cards.
• 04-14📆 Grammar: ❣️ <1 merged with ❗ !
• 04-09📆 Grammar: see rules
• 03-14📆 New relations: 🔗 according and 🔗⭐ depending
• 02-25📆 Snail Mail Newsletter 🐌✉️.
• 02-22📆 Consistent rules for standalone ▶️🎬 todo and ▶️📦 tobe.
• 02-20/21📆 Improved Online Converter.
  (Modifiers and prefixes beginning with '-' are now automatically merged with verbs, e.g. 🐦🎬 tofly + ❤️ -love becomes 🐦❤️🎬 “love to fly”)
  
• 02-15📆 Improved Online Converter and AutoHotkey Script.
  (Verbs now start with 'to-', e.g.  ❤️🎬 tolike vs. 🤲 like)
  
• 02-11📆 New rules section, grammar update.
• 02-07📆 Online Converter on Lingojam
• 02-07📆 Discord Group
• 02-02📆 Reddit Community
• 01-15📆 Website Launch