yupekosi
| Pronunciation | /ˈ�u |
|---|---|
| Usage | 2023: Obscure4, Uncommon6 (22% ↗︎ ) Most speakers don't use this word.2022: Rare (16%)
|
| Book and era | nimi ku lili (post-pu, marginal phonology) |
| Part of speech | Content word |
yupekosi is a post-pu content word relating to changing a creative work and unintentionally making it worse.
It is a self-referential joke word. jan Sonja coined yupekosi several years after Toki Pona: The Language of Good, it has a highly specific definition, and it contains an accidental nonstandard letter y, with no official pronunciation. Thus, it retroactively worsens Toki Pona's vocabulary, spelling system, and phonology.
Notably, yupekosi has a ku frequency index of 3, which would make it a nimi ku suli. However, a proofreader advised excluding it from this classification, and it is generally considered a nimi ku lili instead.
Etymology[edit | edit source]
The word yupekosi was coined in 2019 by jan Sonja in the ma pona pi toki pona community as a keysmash.[1][2] The letter y in the word was accidental.
Pronunciation[edit | edit source]
In her original messages and in the Toki Pona Dictionary, jan Sonja stated that "nobody knows how to pronounce the y".[3][4] In practice, it is often pronounced either as /j/ or [y ~ ɥ], or as a different random sound each time the word is used.[5]
Semantic space[edit | edit source]
jan Sonja originally defined the word yupekosi as:[6]
[…] to behave like George Lucas and revise your old creative works and actually make them worse
This references Star Wars creator George Lucas' changes to the films, which numerous fans and media outlets have criticized. In English, the verb George Lucas is a slang word with a similar meaning to yupekosi.
The German word Verschlimmbesserung carries a similar but broader meaning similar to yupekosi: "attempted improvement that makes things worse; disimprovement".[7]
ku[edit | edit source]
For Toki Pona Dictionary, respondents in ma pona pi toki pona translated these English words as yupekosi:[4]
change a creative work and unintentionally make it worse3
sitelen pona[edit | edit source]
The main sitelen pona glyph for yupekosi (yupekosi) is derived from the Latin letter Y, representing the joke of the word's spelling in sitelen Lasina. In November 2020, nimi Elemenopi designed a version based on the asymmetric form of Y that resembles its standard lower case version (y),[8] to distinguish it from the glyph for anu (anu), which has the same shape as an upright Y. Some fonts alternatively base the glyph on the alternate round-bowled form of Y like that used in cursive.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ jan Sonja [@sonjalang]. (4 November 2019). [Message posted in the
#toki-ponachannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. Retrieved 5 December 2023. "another new word is 'yupekosi'". - ↑ jan Sonja [@sonjalang]. (21 September 2023). [Message posted in the
#toki-ponachannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. Retrieved 26 December 2023. "i just mashed my keyboard randomly for yupekosi and mulapisu as a joke [...] then tried to think of meanings afterwards". - ↑ jan Sonja [@sonjalang]. (4 November 2019). [Message posted in the
#toki-ponachannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. Retrieved 5 December 2023. "nobody knows how to pronounce the y". - ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lang, Sonja. (18 July 2021). Toki Pona Dictionary. Illustrated by Vacon Sartirani. Tawhid. ISBN 978-0978292362. p. 392.
- ↑ jan Ke Tami. "yupekosi". antetokipona.infinityfreeapp.com. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
- ↑ jan Sonja [@sonjalang]. (4 November 2019). [Message posted in the
#toki-ponachannel in the ma pona pi toki pona Discord server]. Discord. Retrieved 5 December 2023. "yupekosi means "to behave like George Lucas and revise your old creative works and actually make them worse"". - ↑ "Verschlimmbesserung" (in German). Duden. Retrieved 26 December 2023.
- ↑ nimi Elemenopi [u/ElemenopiTheSequel]. (30 November 2020). "A better version of the 1b glyphs". r/OffThePu. Reddit. Retrieved 28 December 2023. "[Key: black] = original, made by me".
Further reading[edit | edit source]
- "yupekosi" on lipu Linku