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Remon_Kewl t1_iqqvc3b wrote

Reply to comment by CPEBachIsDead in Utopia”: meaning ‘no place’; from Greek: οὐ (not’) and τόπος (‘place’) by Sphaerocypraea

Not only in modern greek. Pronunciation started shifting in the hellenistic era with the koine greek. Also, by the time this word was coined, the 16th century, the pronunciation was "eftopia".

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CPEBachIsDead t1_iqts5up wrote

And do you suppose Thomas More was intending to harken to the Greek of his day or of the ancients?

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Remon_Kewl t1_iqtu3km wrote

I'm gonna guess neither? Or he didn't really care, since utopia first of all isn't the greek form anyway, it's outopia, as others have said in here. Besides, it's not like the english pronunciation of eutopia is closer to the ancient Greek one than "eftopia". The point of the post the person above the one you answered to was that utopia and eutopia would be pronounced the same, which is false.

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