Recently, I have been trying to find proper Latinisations for the names of states and regions of the U.S and Canadian provinces and regions. I assume that all state and province names have already been Latinised, but I cant find anywhere online to learn what most of those Latinisations are.
I have found New York, as Novum Eboricum, taken from the original Latin name for York in England. I havent found the original Latin for Jersey or Hampshire.
Arkansas has been Latinised as Arkansia since the state was founded, and Maryland was Latinised as Marylandia in colonial times.
Pennsylvania needs no translation since it's already Latin.
Obviously, state names like Virginia, Georgia, California need no change to make them work in Latin, nor do state names such as Alabama, Florida, Alaska, Montana, etc.
Other states have proven more difficult for a rusty amateur like me. Should Kansas become Kansia, or must we retain the final 's' since it is pronounced, giving us the rather unwieldy 'Kansasia'?
Another one that has me confused for the moment: Texas. 'Texia', 'Texasia'?
Tennessee: 'Tennessia', 'Tennesseia'?
Mississippi, Missouri: 'Mississippia', 'Missouria'? Or Missouri could be rendered as 'Missoura', because this is the pronounciation used by older generations of Missourians. Likewise, older generations in Alabama used to call themselves 'Alabamians', so 'Alabamia' could conceivably be an alternative Latinisation.
Ohio, Idaho, Colorado, Utah have me stumped. Perhaps worst of all is Illinois. How in the world do we Latinise it? 'Illinoia'? Or should we try to go back to the original meaning of the word, and Latinise that? If so, there seem to be at least two possibilities for the original meaning of that word.
Then there are Wisconsin, Michigan, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut, Wyoming. 'Wisconsia or Wisconsinia', 'Michigania', etc.? How do we do these?
Another difficult one: Hawaii. 'Hawaiia?', Hawaia'? Or could it remain unchanged?
Oklahoma could be retained as is, ir perhaps we could translate the original meaning into 'Rubrapopula'. Alright, maybe that's going a bit far.
What about New Mexico: Nova Mexicoa, Nova Mexica?
Delaware? Perhaps we could go back to the etymological meaning of 'Warre' ( the state is named after Baron de la Warre).
Well, Nova Scotia is a dead giveaway. What about Quebec, Labrador, or the region called 'the Maritime Provinces'. Is there not a shorter name for this region that could be Latinised, such as 'Maritimia'? Newfoundland: come on now, can we do better than 'Newfoundlandia', or some long winded Latin translation of 'new found land'? Perhaps 'Vinlandia', or 'Vitisia'?
Nova Anglia is easy enough.
The South proves to be a complicated case. It would logically be 'Australia', but this is already taken. Using the name of the South wind, we get 'Austria', also already taken (My God!) We could use the nominative, coming up with 'Austeria', or we could go with 'Austrinia'. Another alternative wouild be Meridia, but no, that's now the name for some silly new designer pharmaceutical, so how about Meridiana (this word may be the best since it has already been used before, in the name of the town of Meridian, Mississippi)? Or we could even go with 'Dixia'. Using the supposed origin of the word Dixie (the French 'Dix', or 'Ten') we could Latinise it into the ridiculous 'Decemia'.
The North: 'Septentriona', or even, from the name of the North wind, the more wieldy and wonderful sounding 'Aquilonia'? Alright, that's the movie homeland of Conan the Barbarian, but it was also a real region or dukedom or something like that in the baltic region in the middle ages and the renaissance. So perhaps we must stick with the longer, less wieldy word.
We could have Atlantica Media or Mediatlantica for the Midatlantic region, Mediocassia or Medioccidentalia or even Mediazephyra for the Midwest. I like combining the adjective with the noun better than using the adjective as a separate word, such as 'Zephyra Media'. It just seems more efficient and more fitting to render the name for a cultural or geographic region as a single word. After all, I would rather call myself a 'Mediocassian' than an 'Ocassia Median', lest someone think I were a Mede with some weird disease. But perhaps this is not acceptable.
Can someone just point me to some place online that might explain all this?
J.C.
(no, the other J.C.)
