The Val in Val di Noto is in Sicilian and in Italian a grammatically masculine term, and it does not refer to a "Valley" as is usual in Italian geographical names, which are although always grammatically feminine, but to one of the Provinces or Governorates into which Sicily was administratively divided under the Arab rule and up until the 1812 administrative reform. The corresponding Arab term is en:Wāli, and the Sicilian Val is akin to the Arab 윌라야 or the Turkish en:Vilayet, used as it would be a 번역차용 of the English term en:Shire
