How to say "fortress, citadel" in Arabic
False friendMeaningfortress, citadel
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
qalʿaקלעה
قلعة
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
mivtsarمِڤْتْسَار
How the two words are related
Sounds like a Hebrew word but means something else — handle with care.
Arabic root
ق-ل-عSame three root letters as Hebrew ק-ל-ע — but don't be fooled. Hebrew קלע means 'to sling (a stone)' or 'to weave' (like the קלעים, the woven hangings of the Tabernacle), while Arabic ق-ل-ع means 'to uproot, tear out': a قلعة is a stronghold hewn out of rock. Same letters, unrelated stories.
Related Hebrew word:קלעkalaكَالَا
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On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Levantine · Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
In casual speech the qāf softens to a glottal stop, but historic citadel names often keep the formal ق — hence 'Qalaat' in English tour guides.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo's Citadel is simply il-ʾalʿa.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
Darija keeps the q: qelʿa.
In a phrase
an old fortress
Plural
broken plural CiCāC — like جَبَل→جِبَال