fala

See also: Appendix:Variations of "fala"

Languages (25)

Asturian • Fala • Galician • Guinea-Bissau Creole • Hungarian • Icelandic • Irish • Italian • Kabuverdianu • Latin • Malagasy • Old English • Old Galician-Portuguese • Polish • Portuguese • Romanian • Samoan • Scottish Gaelic • Serbo-Croatian • Spanish • Sranan Tongo • Swahili • Swedish • Ternate • Tongan

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Page categories

Asturian

Alternative forms

• fabla (La Llomba, Maragatería)
• ḥabla (Eastern)

Etymology

Inherited from Latin fābula.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfala/ [ˈfa.la]
• Rhymes: -ala
• Syllabification: fa‧la

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

Further reading

• Xosé Lluis García Arias (2002–2004), “fala”, in Diccionario general de la lengua asturiana [General Dictionary of the Asturian Language] (in Spanish), Editorial Prensa Asturiana, →ISBN
• “fala”, in Diccionariu de la llingua asturiana [Dictionary of the Asturian Language] (in Asturian), 1ª edición, Academia de la Llingua Asturiana, 2000, →ISBN

Fala

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfala/
• Rhymes: -ala
• Syllabification: fa‧la

Etymology 1

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

Noun

fala f (countable and uncountable, plural falas)

1. (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, […]

2. (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”)

Etymology 2

Verb

fala

1. third-person singular present indicative of falal (“to speak”)
2. second-person singular imperative of falal (“to speak”)

References

• Valeš, Miroslav (2021), Diccionariu de A Fala: lagarteiru, mañegu, valverdeñu (web)‎^[2], 2nd edition, Minde, Portugal: CIDLeS, published 2022, →ISBN, page 141

Galician

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

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfala/ [ˈfa.lɐ]
• Rhymes: -ala
• Hyphenation: fa‧la

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 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.

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

   Synonym: expresión

Related terms

• falar

Verb

fala

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

References

• Seoane, Ernesto Xosé González; Granja, María Álvarez de la; Agrelo, Ana Isabel Boullón (2006–2022), “fala”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval [Dictionary of dictionaries of Medieval Galician] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Barreiro, Xavier Varela; Guinovart, Xavier Gómez (2006–2018), “fala”, in Corpus Xelmírez: corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval [Corpus Xelmírez: linguistic corpus of Medieval Galicia] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “fala”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “fala”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “fala”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

Guinea-Bissau Creole

Etymology

Inherited from Portuguese falar. Cognate with Kabuverdianu fala.

Verb

fala

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

Hungarian

Etymology

fal (“wall”) +‎ -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	—

Icelandic

Noun

fala

1. indefinite genitive plural of falur

Irish

Alternative forms

• fola

Etymology

From Middle Irish fola.

Pronunciation

• (Munster) IPA^(key): /ˈfˠɑl̪ˠə/
• (Aran) IPA^(key): /ˈfˠɑlə/
• (Cois Fharraige, Mayo, Ulster) IPA^(key): /ˈfˠalˠə/, /ˈfˠal̪ˠə/

Noun

fala f (genitive singular fala, nominative plural falta)

1. grudge, spite, resentment, feud

   Tá fala aici liom.

   She has a grudge against me.

Declension

Declension of fala (fourth declension)

bare forms singular plural nominative fala falta vocative a fhala a fhalta genitive fala falta dative fala falta forms with the definite article 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

Mutated forms of fala

radical	lenition	eclipsis
fala	fhala	bhfala

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “fala”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN
• de Bhaldraithe, Tomás (1959), “fala”, in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm

Italian

Etymology

From Latin fala, from Etruscan 𐌚𐌀𐌋𐌀 (fala).

Noun

fala f (plural fale)

1. a siege tower

Anagrams

• alfa

Kabuverdianu

Etymology

From Portuguese falar.

Verb

fala

1. speak

References

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

Latin

Alternative forms

• phala

Etymology

From Etruscan 𐌚𐌀𐌋𐌀 (fala).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈfa.ɫa]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈfaː.la]

Noun

fala f (genitive falae); first declension

1. (military) a siege tower

Declension

First-declension noun.

	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.

Malagasy

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fala/

Noun

fala

1. vagina, vulva

Old English

Adjective

fala

1. alternative form of fela

Old Galician-Portuguese

Etymology

From Latin fābula (“discourse, narrative”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfa.la/

Noun

fala f (plural falas)

1. discourse, narrative

Related terms

• falar

Descendants

• Fala: fala
• Galician: fala
• Portuguese: fala

Polish

fala

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *welH-der.

Proto-Germanic *wallijǭ

Proto-West Germanic *wallijā

Old High German wella

Middle High German welle

German Wellebor.

Polish fala

Borrowed from German Welle. First attested in 1594. Displaced wełn.

Pronunciation

 

• IPA^(key): /ˈfa.la/

• (Middle Polish) IPA^(key): /ˈfɒ.la/
• (Greater Poland):
  • (Kuyavia) IPA^(key): [ˈfa.la]
• (Masovia):
  • (Near Masovian) IPA^(key): [ˈfa.la]
  • (Far Masovian) IPA^(key): [ˈfa.la]
  • (Podlachia) IPA^(key): [ˈfa.lʲa]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ala
• Syllabification: fa‧la
• Homophone: Fala

Noun

fala f (related adjective falowy)

1. wave (rise in water caused by wind or underwater seismic movements)
2. wave, surge (intensification of some phenomena)
   1. (obsolete) surge, burst, flurry (sudden onset of precipitation)
3. 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.

4. wave, surge (sudden appearance of intense feelings and sensations)

   Synonyms: przypływ, (obsolete) przystęp

5. (physics) wave (moving disturbance in the energy level of a field)
6. wave; curl (hairstyle resembling a wave)

   Synonym: karb

7. bullying (teasing from a higher grade to a lower grade in school, etc.)
8. (military) time remaining until the end of military service
9. (military) soldiers from a singular draft
10. wave (moving disturbance, undulation)
11. (physics) wave (moving disturbance in a field)
12. wave (sudden, but temporary, uptick in something)

    Synonyms: nasilenie, przypływ

13. crowd, wave (large group of people)

    Synonym: przypływ

    Hypernym: tłum

14. (Far Masovian, Near Masovian, Podlachia, Kuyavia) temptest; rainstorm; hailstorm windstorm (storm with wind, rain, etc)

    Synonym: nawałnica

    Fala idzie. (Kujawy) ― A windstorm is coming.

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

adjectives

• falisty

adverbs

• na falach eteru

nouns

• fala nośna
• fale długie
• fale krótkie
• fale radiowe
• fale średnie
• fale ultrakrótkie
• falochron
• interferencja fal
• martwa fala
• Nowa Fala
• zielona fala

prepositions

• na fali

verbs

• falować impf

verbs

• 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

Descendants

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

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.

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
• Bańkowski, Andrzej (2000), “fala”, in Etymologiczny słownik języka polskiego [Etymological Dictionary of the Polish Language] (in Polish)
• fala in Narodowy Fotokorpus Języka Polskiego
• Zygmunt Wasilewski (1889), “fala”, in Jagodne: wieś w powiecie łukowskim, gminie Dąbie: zarys etnograficzny‎^[3] (in Polish), Warsaw: M. Arct, page 241
• Wojciech Grzegorzewicz (1894), “fala”, in “O języku ludowym w powiecie przasnyskim”, in Sprawozdania Komisji Językowej Akademii Umiejętności (in Polish), volume 5, Krakow: Akademia Umiejętności, page 107
• Hieronim Łopaciński (1892), “fala”, in “Przyczynki do nowego słownika języka polskiego (słownik wyrazów ludowych z Lubelskiego i innych okolic Królestwa Polskiego)”, in Prace Filologiczne (in Polish), volume 4, Warsaw: skł. gł. w Księgarni E. Wende i Ska, page 194

Portuguese

Alternative forms

• falla (pre-standardization spelling)

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈfa.lɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈfa.lɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈfa.la/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈfa.lɐ/

• Audio (Portugal (Porto)):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -alɐ
• Hyphenation: fa‧la

Etymology 1

From Old Galician-Portuguese fala, from Latin fābula (“discourse, narrative”). Doublet of fábula, a learned borrowing.

Noun

fala f (countable and uncountable, plural falas)

1. (uncountable) speech (the ability to speak)

   Antonyms: afonia, mudez

2. (countable) something spoken, such as a phrase or line

   É importante analisar a fala da personagem.

   It is important to analyse what the character said.

   Justo na hora de sua apresentação, ele esqueceu sua fala.

   Right at the time of his presentation, he forgot his line.

3. (countable) a way of speaking

   Sua fala é muito engraçada.

   Your way of speaking is very funny.

   1. accent, pronunciation, or enunciation

      Synonyms: dicção, linguajar, pronúncia, sotaque

      A fala dele é sempre arrastada assim? ― Is his pronunciation always so slurred?

      Meu pai sempre tem a fala grave. ― My father always has a serious tone.

   2. a dialect or regional variant of a language

      Synonyms: dialeto, variante

      A fala do Norte é diferente daquela do Sul. ― The northern dialect is different from the southern one.

Derived terms

• fala de Estremadura
• fala de Xálima

Related terms

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

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Interjection

fala!

1. (Brazil, informal) sup? (used to greet someone)

   Fala, Rodrigo, beleza? ― Sup, Rodrigo, you good?

Verb

fala

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

Further reading

• “fala”, in Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), São Paulo: Editora Melhoramentos, 2015–2026, →ISBN
• “fala”, in Dicionário infopédia da Lingua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2026
• “fala”, in Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisboa: Academia das Ciências de Lisboa, 2001–2026
• “fala”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026
• “fala”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈfala]

Noun

fala f

1. definite nominative/accusative singular of fală

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

Scottish Gaelic

Noun

fala f sg

1. genitive singular of fuil

Mutation

Mutation of fala

radical	lenition
fala	fhala

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Scottish Gaelic.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Serbo-Croatian

Pronunciation

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

Noun

fála f (Cyrillic spelling фа́ла)

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

Spanish

Verb

fala

1. inflection of far:
   1. second-person singular imperative combined with la
   2. second-person singular voseo imperative combined with la

Sranan Tongo

Etymology 1

From English fell or Dutch vellen.

Verb

fala

1. to fell

Etymology 2

From English fall.

Verb

fala

1. to ebb

Swahili

Alternative forms

• fara

Pronunciation

• Audio (Kenya):

  (file)

Noun

fala class V (plural mafala class VI)

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

   Synonym: mjinga

Swedish

Adjective

fala

1. inflection of fal:
   1. definite singular
   2. plural

Anagrams

• alfa

Ternate

fala

Etymology

Cognate with Tidore fola, Tabaru woa, West Makian pala.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈfa.la]

Noun

fala

1. house

   fala mari ― stonen house

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/

Noun

fala

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

Derived terms

• fakapopofala