What you need to know

Earlier this year, YouTube revealed the results of a UK study about the English language. The majority of adults who took part – 94% – say there has been a decline in the English language. Over a third believe that emojis are to blame.

More than half of those questioned also said they lack confidence in their spelling and grammar.

Emojis evolved from emoticons (punctuation marks used to make facial expressions) and were created by Shigetaka Kurita in 1999.

The Oxford Dictionaries 2015 Word of the Year was the face with tears of joy emoji.