Correct place-names

Some of your readers' musings on local toponymy is, to say the least, pathetic. Linguistics is surely not their mettle.

Ask any Maltese the simple question: "Fejn sejjer?" (Where are you going?) and he will definitely answer: "Tas-Sliema" and not "Sliema". The preposition, agglutinated with the definite article, is part and parcel of the place-name. Sliema is simply the English truncated form of the Maltese (hence authentic) version. Where I to write Hague instead of The Hague, the Dinglis and the Cefais would justly laugh off my ignorance.

In fact, the majority of local place-names shown on ID cards, telephone directories, local council sign-boards, etc., are all written the wrong way. They were simply scribbled down by people who are incompetent in such matters. Hence, your readers are merely repeating, in parrot-like fashion, the errors committed by their predecessors.

Incidentally, for the sake of those who cherish meticulousness: (a) the correct names of Naxxar and Mosta are In-Naxxar and Il-Mosta (with the definite article just like The Hague); (b) the correct names of Luqa and Safi are Hal Luqa and Hal Safi (without the hyphen as Hal is simply an abbreviated form of Rahal); (c) the correct names of Zebbug and Zabbar are Haz-Zebbug and Haz-Zabbar (with the hyphen) and (d) the correct names of Kercem and Ibrag are Ta' Kercem and Ta' l-Ibrag (just like Ta' Xbiex).

Godfrey Wettinger's monumental "Place-Names of the Maltese Islands, ca. 1300 - 1800" (published in 2000) confirms these spellings as they feature in historical documents, some of which even date back to the late Middle Ages.