fala

See also: Fala, fa-la, falá, fală, fạla, and -fala

Asturian

Etymology

From Latin fābula.

Noun

fala f (plural fales)

1. speaking, speech

Related terms

• falar

Verb

fala

1. third-person singular present indicative of falar
2. second-person singular imperative of falar

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Fala

Etymology

From Old Portuguese fala, from Latin fābula (“discourse; narrative”).

Noun

fala f (plural falas)

1. Fala (Romance language of northwestern Extremadura)
   • 2000, Domingo Frades Gaspar, Vamus a falal: Notas pâ coñocel y platical en nosa fala, Editora regional da Extremadura, Theme IV, Chapter 2: O “Oiru” i o “Moiru” do diptongu “au” latinu:

     É algu que poi dal traballu a os estudiosus da fala, […]

     It is something which may be complicated for Fala scholars, […]

2. a language or language variant, especially a minority or regional one
   • 2000, Domingo Frades Gaspar, Vamus a falal: Notas pâ coñocel y platical en nosa fala, Editora regional da Extremadura, Theme I, Chapter 2: Númerus?:

     As lenguas, idiomas, dialectus o falas tenin un-as funciós mui claras desde o principiu dos siglu i si hai contabilizaus en o mundu un-as 8.000 lenguas, ca un-a con sua importancia numérica relativa, a nossa fala é un tesoiru mais entre elas.

     The tongues, languages or regional variants have some very clear functions since the beginning of the centuries and some 8,000 languages have been accounted for in the world, each with its relative numerical importance, our Fala is another treasure among them.

Verb

fala

1. third person singular present indicative of verb falal.
   • 2000, Domingo Frades Gaspar, Vamus a falal: Notas pâ coñocel y platical en nosa fala, Editora regional da Extremadura, Theme XI:

     Quen fala poi escribil

     Those who speak can write

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Galician

1917. ID card, Amigos da Fala ("Friends of the [Galician] Language")

Etymology

From Old Galician and Old Portuguese fala (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from Latin fābula (“discourse; narrative”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfala̝/

Noun

fala m (plural falas)

1. voice, speech (faculty of speech)
   • 1370, Ramón Lorenzo (ed.), Cronica troiana. A Coruña: Fundación "Pedro Barrié de la Maza, Conde de Fenosa", page 567:

     Ata meodía nõ cobrou sua fala, nẽ seu entendemento.

     Till noon he didn't recover his voice nor his mind

   • 1779, Diego Antonio Cernadas, Obras en Prosa y Verso. Madrid. page 315:

     Co o desexo de acordarvos, que en Galicia o seu funduxe ten a vosa nobre fruxe, vou en Gallego a falarvos: De esto non hai que estrañarvos; antes ben, facendo gala de esta nación, estimá-la, e si porque moito dista, non a conocés de vista, conocedea pola fala

     With the desire to make you remember that in Galicia your noble lineage has its foundation, I'm gonna speak to you in Galician: no need to wonder for this; rather, taking pride of this nation, to love it, and if because of the distance, you don't know it by sight, let's you know it by its speech.

2. a language, a dialect or a sociolect
   • 1859, José Domínguez d'Esquerdo, Entonces e agora ou Coroas e cadeas do fidalgo povo galicián:

     deprende a fala francesa, ingresa ou italián, e non construie a galícea, encolle o lombo, cand'ouce falare do país en que nasceu!

     he learns the French, the English or the Italian languages, but can't elaborate in Galician, he flinches when he hears about the country where he was born!

3. Galego, Galician language
   • 1917, anonymous, A Nosa Terra, n. 7:

     Fai pouco tempo, e ben pouco por nosa indiferenza, qu'un feixe d'homes de vontade de ferro, axuntaronse, formando a santa e nobre Irmandade da Fala.

     Sometime ago, a very short time ago because of our indifference, a handful of men with an iron will, joining together, founded the holy and noble Brotherhood of the Fala.

4. Fala (Galician-Portuguese language of northwestern Extremadura, in Spain)
5. word, tale
6. speech, expression

Related terms

• falar

Verb

fala

1. third-person singular present indicative of falar
2. second-person singular imperative of falar

References

• “fala” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006-2012.
• “fala” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006-2016.
• “fala” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006-2013.
• “fala” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “fala” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.

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Guinea-Bissau Creole

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese falar. Cognates with Kabuverdianu fala.

Verb

fala

1. to say
2. to speak
3. to talk

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Hungarian

Etymology

fal +‎ -a (possessive suffix)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ ˈfɒlɒ]
• Hyphenation: fa‧la

Noun

fala

1. third-person singular single-possession possessive of fal

Declension

Inflection (stem in long/high vowel, back harmony)
	singular	plural
nominative	fala	—
accusative	falát	—
dative	falának	—
instrumental	falával	—
causal-final	faláért	—
translative	falává	—
terminative	faláig	—
essive-formal	falaként	—
essive-modal	falául	—
inessive	falában	—
superessive	falán	—
adessive	falánál	—
illative	falába	—
sublative	falára	—
allative	falához	—
elative	falából	—
delative	faláról	—
ablative	falától	—
non-attributive possessive - singular	faláé	—
non-attributive possessive - plural	faláéi	—

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Icelandic

Noun

fala

1. indefinite genitive plural of falur

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Irish

Alternative forms

• fola

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

fala f (genitive singular fala, nominative plural falta)

1. grudge, spite, resentment, feud

Declension

Declension of fala

Fourth declension

Bare forms Case Singular Plural Nominative fala falta Vocative a fhala a fhalta Genitive fala falta Dative fala falta

Forms with the definite article Case Singular Plural Nominative an fhala na falta Genitive na fala na bhfalta Dative leis an bhfala don fhala leis na falta

Derived terms

• ar eagla na fala thuas (“for fear of the wrath to come; to be morally on the safe side”)

Mutation

Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Eclipsis
fala	fhala	bhfala
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

References

• "fala" in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• Entries containing “fala” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.

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Italian

Etymology

From Latin fala, from Etruscan [Term?].

Noun

fala f (plural fale)

1. a siege tower

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Kabuverdianu

Verb

fala

1. speak

Etymology

From Portuguese falar.

References

• Gonçalves, Manuel (2015) Capeverdean Creole-English dictionary, →ISBN

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Latin

Alternative forms

• phala

Etymology

From Etruscan [Term?].

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /ˈfa.la/, [ˈfa.ɫ̪a]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈfa.la/, [ˈfaː.la]

Noun

fala f (genitive falae); first declension

1. (military) a siege tower

Declension

First-declension noun.

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	fala	falae
Genitive	falae	falārum
Dative	falae	falīs
Accusative	falam	falās
Ablative	falā	falīs
Vocative	fala	falae

Derived terms

• falārica

References

• fala in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• fala in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

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Malagasy

Etymology

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *palaq, from Proto-Austronesian *palaq.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fala/

Noun

fala

1. vagina, vulva

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Novial

Verb

fala (past falad, active participle falant, passive participle falat)

1. fall

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Polish

Etymology

From German Welle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfa.la/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

fala f

1. wave

   Fala turystów wracających z wakacji spowodowała korki na drogach.

   A wave of tourists returning from their holidays caused traffic jams on the roads.

Declension

declension of fala

	singular	plural
nominative	fala	fale
genitive	fali	fal
dative	fali	falom
accusative	falę	fale
instrumental	falą	falami
locative	fali	falach
vocative	falo	fale

Derived terms

• falisty
• falochron m (noun)
• falować (verb)
• mikrofalowy

 

Descendants

• → Belarusian: хва́ля (xválja)
• → Ukrainian: хви́ля (xvýlja)

Further reading

• fala in Polish dictionaries at PWN

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Portuguese

Alternative forms

• falla (obsolete)

Etymology

From Old Portuguese fala, from Latin fābula (“discourse, narrative”), from for (“I speak”), from Proto-Italic *fāðlā, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“speak”) + *-dʰleh₂. Compare fábula, a borrowed doublet.

Pronunciation

• (Portugal, Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈfa.lɐ/

Noun

fala f (plural falas)

1. (uncountable) speech (the ability to speak; the state of not being mute)

   Antonyms: afonia, mudez

2. a speech, a discourse
3. accent (the way someone speaks)

   Synonyms: dicção, linguajar, pronúncia, sotaque

4. a dialect or regional variant of a language

   Synonyms: dialeto, variante

5. a line of dialogue in a screenplay or script

Quotations

For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:pt.

Synonyms

• (discourse): see Thesaurus:conversa

Derived terms

• (dialect):
  • fala de Estremadura
  • fala de Xálima

Related terms

• falação
• faladeira
• falado
• falador
• falante
• falar
• falastrão
• falatório
• falável

 

Verb

fala

1. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present indicative of falar
2. second-person singular (tu, sometimes used with você) affirmative imperative of falar

Quotations

For quotations of use of this term, see Citations:falar.

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Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈfala]

Noun

fala f

1. definite nominative/accusative singular of fală

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Samoan

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *fala, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian [Term?] (compare Indonesian pandan, Hawaiian hala).

Noun

fala

1. the screw pine, pandanus, Pandanus tectorius
2. a woven mat made from the leaves of the pandanus

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Scottish Gaelic

Noun

fala f sg

1. genitive singular of fuil

Mutation

Scottish Gaelic mutation
Radical	Lenition
fala	fhala
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

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Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fǎːla/
• Hyphenation: fa‧la

Noun

fála f (Cyrillic spelling фа́ла)

1. (colloquial) Nonstandard form of hvála (“thanks”).

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Swahili

Alternative forms

• fara

Noun

fala (ma class, plural mafala)

1. (derogatory) a fool, an imbecile (person with poor judgement or little intelligence)

   Synonym: mjinga

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Swedish

Adjective

fala

1. absolute singular definite and plural form of fal.

Anagrams

• alfa

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Tongan

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *fala, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian [Term?] (compare Indonesian pandan, Hawaiian hala).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fa.la/

Noun

fala

1. a woven mat usually made from the leaves of the pandanus

Derived terms

• fakapopofala