yupekosi
yupekosi is a joke word and content word relating to changing a creative work and unintentionally making it worse. This word contains the marginal phoneme written as ⟨y⟩, that is, a phoneme not present the standard phonology.
 | |
| 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 |
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
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
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.
Semantic space
The word yupekosi was originally defined as:[5]
[…] to behave like George Lucas and revise your old creative works and actually make them worse
This references that American filmmaker George Lucas, known for creating Star Wars, revisited his original drafts for the prequels, which was criticized by numerous fans. In English, the verb George Lucas is a slang word with a similar meaning to yupekosi.
The German word Verschlimmbesserung carries a broader meaning similar to yupekosi: "attempted improvement that makes things worse; disimprovement".[6]
ku
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
References
- ↑ 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 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.
Further reading
- "yupekosi" on lipu Linku