[SllX]

Mate, that’s why I stated forthright that this is a me problem and made no bones about it.

The “e” is from 「絵」and “moji” from 「文字」, transliterated as 「えもじ」, “e” + “moji” gets you “picture message”. It was a stroke of luck that it was similar enough to emoticon to neatly fit into our existing lexicon and be understood at a glance by an English speaker, at least the gist of it. A picture message is a little bit different than an emote icon if you think about it because there’s many more pictures which are not emotes per se, but can be used within a message alongside the emoting emoji. :)

[themaninthedark]

Sorry, I was not trying to come off as pushy. Your comment made me think about why I pronounce it the way I do and I thought I would share :)