fala
Asturian
Related terms
Fala
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈfala/
Etymology 1
From Old Galician-Portuguese fala, from Latin fābula (“discourse; narrative”).
Noun
fala f (countable and uncountable, plural falas)
- (uncountable, with definite article) 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, […]
- (countable) 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.
Related terms
- falal (“to speak, to talk”)
Verb
fala
Galician

Etymology
From Old Galician-Portuguese fala (13th century, Cantigas de Santa Maria), from Latin fābula (“discourse; narrative”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈfala̝/
Noun
fala m (plural falas)
- 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.
- 1370, Ramón Lorenzo (ed.), Cronica troiana. A Coruña: Fundación "Pedro Barrié de la Maza, Conde de Fenosa", page 567:
- 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!
- Galego, Galician language
- 1917, anonymous author, A Nosa Terra, number 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.
- Fala (Galician-Portuguese language of northwestern Extremadura, in Spain)
- word, tale
- speech, expression
Related terms
Verb
fala
- inflection of falar:
- third-person singular present indicative
- second-person singular imperative
References
- “fala” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006–2022.
- “fala” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
- “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.
Guinea-Bissau Creole
Etymology
Inherited from Portuguese falar. Cognate with Kabuverdianu fala.
Hungarian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈfɒlɒ]
- Hyphenation: fa‧la
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 | — |
Icelandic
Irish
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle Irish fola, apparently a specialized form of Old Irish folud (“goods and services owed in virtue of a contract”).[1]
Pronunciation
Declension
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
- G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “2 fola, fala”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
- Finck, F. N. (1899) Die araner mundart (in German), volume II, Marburg: Elwert’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, page 102
Further reading
- Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977) “fala”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
- Entries containing “fala” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
Italian
Anagrams
Kabuverdianu
Etymology
From Portuguese falar.
References
- Gonçalves, Manuel (2015) Capeverdean Creole-English dictionary, →ISBN
Latin
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /ˈfa.la/, [ˈfäɫ̪ä]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /ˈfa.la/, [ˈfäːlä]
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
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.
Malagasy
Etymology
From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *palaq, from Proto-Austronesian *palaq.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fala/
Polish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈfa.la/
- (Middle Polish) IPA(key): /ˈfɒ.la/
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -ala
- Syllabification: fa‧la
- Homophone: Fala
Noun
fala f (related adjective falowy)
- wave (rise in water caused by wind or underwater seismic movements)
- wave, surge (intensification of some phenomena)
- wave, surge (very large number of people gathered in some place and constantly moving somewhere)
- Synonym: przypływ
- Fala turystów wracających z wakacji spowodowała korki na drogach. ― A wave of tourists returning from their holidays caused traffic jams on the roads.
- wave, surge (sudden appearance of intense feelings and sensations)
- (physics) wave (moving disturbance in the energy level of a field)
- wave; curl (hairstyle resembling a wave)
- Synonym: karb
- bullying (teasing from a higher grade to a lower grade in school, etc.)
- (military) time remaining until the end of military service
- (military) soldiers from a singular draft
- wave (moving disturbance, undulation)
- (physics) wave (moving disturbance in a field)
- wave (sudden, but temporary, uptick in something)
- crowd, wave (large group of people)
Declension
Derived terms
- na falach eteru
- falować impf
- być na fali impf
- nadawać na tych samych falach impf
- utrzymać się na fali pf, utrzymywać się na fali impf
- wylać oliwę na wzburzone fale pf, lać oliwę na wzburzone fale impf
- złapać falę pf, łapać falę impf
Trivia
According to Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej (1990), fala is one of the most used words in Polish, appearing 65 times in scientific texts, 16 times in news, 8 times in essays, 17 times in fiction, and 4 times in plays, each out of a corpus of 100,000 words, totaling 110 times, making it the 558th most common word in a corpus of 500,000 words.[6]
References
- Boryś, Wiesław (2005) “fala”, in Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego (in Polish), Kraków: Wydawnictwo Literackie, →ISBN
- Mańczak, Witold (2017) “fala”, in Polski słownik etymologiczny (in Polish), Kraków: Polska Akademia Umiejętności, →ISBN
- Sławski, Franciszek (1958-1965) “fala”, in Jan Safarewicz, Andrzej Siudut, editors, Słownik etymologiczny języka polskiego [Etymological dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), Kraków: Towarzystwo Miłośników Języka Polskiego
- Witold Doroszewski, editor (1958–1969), “fala”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), Warszawa: PWN
- Maria Renata Mayenowa, Stanisław Rospond, Witold Taszycki, Stefan Hrabec, Władysław Kuraszkiewicz (2010-2023) “fala”, in Słownik Polszczyzny XVI Wieku [A Dictionary of 16th Century Polish]
- Ida Kurcz (1990) “fala”, in Słownik frekwencyjny polszczyzny współczesnej [Frequency dictionary of the Polish language] (in Polish), volume 1, Kraków, Warszawa: Polska Akademia Nauk. Instytut Języka Polskiego, page 116
Further reading
- fala in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
- fala in Polish dictionaries at PWN
- Wiesław Morawski (29.11.2018) “FALA”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century]
- Samuel Bogumił Linde (1807–1814) “fala”, in Słownik języka polskiego
- Aleksander Zdanowicz (1861) “fala”, in Słownik języka polskiego, Wilno 1861
- J. Karłowicz, A. Kryński, W. Niedźwiedzki, editors (1900), “fala”, in Słownik języka polskiego (in Polish), volume 1, Warsaw, page 713
- Template:R:pl:SgOWiM
- Bańkowski, Andrzej (2000) “fala”, in Etymologiczny słownik języka polskiego [Etymological Dictionary of the Polish Language] (in Polish)
- fala in Narodowy Fotokorpus Języka Polskiego
Portuguese
Etymology 1
From Old Galician-Portuguese fala, from Latin fābula (“discourse, narrative”). Compare fábula, a borrowed doublet.
Alternative forms
- falla (obsolete)
Noun
fala f (plural falas)
- (uncountable) speech (the ability to speak; the state of not being mute)
- a speech, a discourse
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:conversa
- A fala da personagem
- The character's speech
- Justo na hora de sua apresentação, ele esqueceu sua fala.
- Right on time the for his presentation, he forgot his speech.
- accent (the way someone speaks)
- a dialect or regional variant of a language
- a line of dialogue in a screenplay or script
- Ele praticava sua fala, um tanto nervoso.
- He practiced his line, nervously.
- (Brazil, informal) used to greet someone (equivalent to english sup)
- Fala Rodrigo, beleza?
- Sup Rodrigo, you good?
Quotations
For quotations using this term, see Citations:fala.
Derived terms
- (dialect):
- fala de Estremadura
- fala de Xálima
Verb
fala
- inflection of falar:
- third-person singular present indicative
- second-person singular imperative
Quotations
For quotations using this term, see Citations:falar.
Romanian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈfala]
Samoan
Etymology
From Proto-Polynesian *fala, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian [Term?] (compare Indonesian pandan, Hawaiian hala).
Noun
fala
- the screw pine, pandanus (Pandanus tectorius)
- a woven mat made from the leaves of the pandanus
Scottish Gaelic
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. |
Serbo-Croatian
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fǎːla/
- Hyphenation: fa‧la
Sranan Tongo
Swahili
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
Audio (Kenya) (file)
Noun
fala (ma class, plural mafala)
- (derogatory) a fool, an imbecile (person with poor judgement or little intelligence)
- Synonym: mjinga
Ternate

Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [ˈfa.la]
References
- Rika Hayami-Allen (2001) A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh
Tongan
Etymology
From Proto-Polynesian *fala, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian [Term?] (compare Indonesian pandan, Hawaiian hala).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /fa.la/
Derived terms
- fakapopofala