Mosquitia: The native, Anglosphere kingdom, with an official Latinized name

Besides the many Latin countries that emerged following the fall of the Spanish Empire, there was another country, though part of the Anglosphere, that initially ended up with an official Latinized name. That country was Mosquitia.

The toponym of the country was derived from the etymon Miskito, the name of the most powerful ethnic group in the country at the time. Their name, however, was initially written, over the same territory that became the country, as Moskitos, on an English map from 'A New Voyage around the World', by Captain William Dampier, published in 1697. Later, this name was translated as Mosquitos, first on a French map published in 1703 and then on a Spanish one published in 1716. Thereafter, however, the latter translations were used more often, even on English maps.

A map of the middle part of America, 1697.

Teâtre de la guerre en Amerique telle que'elle est à present possedée par les Espagnols, Anglois, François, et Hollandois &c: nouvellement mis au jour, 1703.

Mapa de lo principal de la Provincia de Nicaragua, su laguna, y desagüe de ella, por el Río de San Juan, Poblasones de los enemigos Zambos e Yngleses en Puntagorda y Mosquitos, y las costas y parajes, adonde hazen daños y prezas, 1716.

Now, in French, as in Spanish, if a word has a QU, it is pronounced as a hard K, the U being silent. This pronunciation, however, is not the same in English. When an English word has a QU, whether at the start or in the middle, it is pronounced, for example, KW-ebec, KW-een, KW-estion, tran-KW-ility, conse-KW-ence, etc. But such a pronunciation as these words cannot be applied to the name Mosquitia, even in English. Therefore, when the name of the country appeared for the first time, literally, as Mosquitia on William Faden’s map published on February 1st, 1787, and in the political constitution of the country of September 10, 1846, as Kingdom of Mosquitia, it was actually a Latinized form of the name that was being used, considering that both French and Spanish are part of the same language family (Romance or Latin). The name was formed by adding the Latin suffix -ia, which is used to form abstract nouns of feminine gender denoting a state, condition, or place, either singular, plural, or collective.

Example: Colomb-ia, Land of Columbus; Eston-ia, Land of the Aesti; Russ-ia, Land of the Ros; Sloven-ia, Land of the Slavs; and Mosquit-ia, Land of the Mosquitians.

A map of a part of Yucatan, or of that part of the eastern shore within the Bay of Honduras alloted to Great Britain for the cutting of logwood, in consequence of the convention signed with Spain on the 14th July 1786, 1787.

However, regardless of the fact that the name was officially written as Mosquitia, the proper orthography in English is actually Moskitia, where the K sound is properly pronounced as it is written.

In Spanish, the orthography of the name remains Mosquitia, and in French, it is Mosquitie. In the Miskito language, it is written and pronounced as Muskitia, there being no O in the Miskito alphabet.

If nothing else, this historical fact proves one thing: Moskitia was so powerful that its name was known to nations the world over, who were even interested in translating it into their own language.