Qala' or Qalgħa?

The letter on this subject (The Sunday Times, March 1) is more intriguing than might at first seem. We are faced with the problem whether the highest area in Tarxien should be called Qala' or Qalgħa. The former denotes a sail, the latter a castle.

Now, since Tarxien is relatively distant from the sea, I would exclude any connection between the township and shipping (qala as 'bay' I also see as far-fetched for the same reason). That leaves us with qalgħa as castle (cf. Alcalá in Spanish coming pre-Reconquista times). Since the area sits on high ground, this meaning would make a lot of sense.

Wied il-Qlejgħa (more popularly known as Chadwick Lakes) means the Valley of the Small Castle. We also have Nadur in Gozo and Borġ in-Nadur in Birżebbuġa (cf Andalusí Arabic: to warn, to caution); both lie a on strategically high level where lookout personnel can spot approaching danger and warn the population.

When deciphering our place-names one has to be extra careful. They were normally given in the official language of the time, that is Classical or else Siculo-Arabic, which is rather different from the extant Maltese. Moreover, between the Middle Ages and modern times, amateurish romantic philologists made a veritable mess of accepted etymology.

These well-meaning but uninformed writers created myths and fantasies that still bedevil the serious study of Maltese linguistic history. Some examples may suffice to illustrate this point: Wied il-Għasri, which simply means the valley of retarded harvest (it being in the west where the sun takes longer to arrive) is given as the Valley of the Wine-presses. Wied is-Sewda as the Valley of the Negress, when all it connotes is the Valley of the Black (or Dark) Stone as opposed to Blata l-Bajda, Wied iż-Żurrieq is advertised as the Valley of the Blue-Eyed Folk or something to that effect, when the real meaning is (Valley of) the Gulley which is suggested by its physical shape.

I urge the authorities, not least the Tarxien council and its worthy mayor, to delve deeper into the matter before deciding against Qalgħa with an għ, the inclusion of which may be quite legitimate.