Etymology of Portuguese "falar"

Discussion in 'Etymology, History of languages, and Linguistics (EHL)' started by Demurral, Oct 31, 2008.

  1. Demurral Senior Member

    Catalan, Spanish
    I know that falar in Portuguese means "speak".

    I want to now if this word is etymologically related to that of "fail" in Latin or so??

    Could anybody answer me??
    Thanks in advance.
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 31, 2008
  2. demalaga Member

    España castellano
    Since Spanish hablar comes from Latin ( vulgar) FABULARI I am almost sure also falar has the same etymology
  3. Outsider Senior Member

    Portuguese (Portugal)
    Yes, that is the etymology I've read, too: from the hypothetical Vulgar Latin form *fabulare, from fabula (fable).

    The same origin as Spanish hablar.
  4. Athaulf

    Athaulf Senior Member

    Toronto, Canada
    Croatian/Bosnia, Croatia
    You mean English "fail"? No, they're not related. The latter comes from Latin fallere, not *fabulare.
  5. demalaga Member

    España castellano
    It's curious enough that the word for "speak" in most Romance languages is derived from vulgar Latin, from one side parabola and the verb parabolare, (parler, parlare, parlar) and not very different fabula and the verb fabulare (hablar, falar),But Romanian vorbi derives from other word (maybe verbum?)
  6. Demurral Senior Member

    Catalan, Spanish
    It would have been beatiful that a language had trapped the meaning of "better shut up and seem silly, than speaking and prove it".

    Thanks to all of you!
  7. federicoft Senior Member

    In Italian you can say favellare too, which has the same etymology has hablar/falar, although today is obsolete and used just for ironic purposes.
  8. cobusteanu Member

    The Romanian word a vorbi (to speak) comes from vorba (word) and so far the etymology is not Known (it is speculated that comes from the slavic dvoriba.

    Though a fabula, in Romanian, it means to talk untrue things, halucinating

    And o fabula it is a fable.
    Last edited: Nov 2, 2008
  9. Tagarela Senior Member

    Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
    Português - Brasil

    In Portuguese, fábula also means a story, fairy-tale, something like that.

  10. OldAvatar Senior Member

    However, fabula is a neologism in Romanian.
    There are two theories regarding the etymology of a vorbi - vorbire. One claims that the origins of the word could be found in Proto-Slavic languages, as mentioned above, the other puts the word in relation with Latin verbum (vorbă, for example, means speech or word).
  11. Frank06

    Frank06 Senior Member

    Nederlands / Dutch (Belgium)

    The etymology of the Romanina word vorbi (to speak) can be (further) discussed in this thread.


    Moderator EHL
  12. lara70 Member

    São Paulo, Brazil
    Brazil, portuguese
    Yes, 'falar', 'fábula', 'confabular': from Latin 'fabulari' / 'fabula' (Antônio G. da Cunha. Dicionário etimológico da língua portugesa).
  13. Ephebus New Member

    English -USA
    To fail = Vulgar Latin fallire , variant of Lat. fallere
    Pt. = falhar
    SP. = fallar
    It. = fallire

    Portuguese has falar, fabular, confabular from fabulari and also fábula, fabulosa.

    And from Lat. parabola Portuguese has ''palavra'' (word, speech, chat), origin of the English ''palaver'', ''parábola'' (parable), and also from parabolare has ''parlar'', ''palrar'' and ''parolar'' (meaning to speak, chatter, babble, gabble, jabber, gossip)
  14. robbie_SWE

    robbie_SWE Senior Member

    Trilingual: Swedish, Romanian & English
    This got me thinking of Romanian words with the same ancestry, but different meanings:

    palavră = untrue story, tale
    a pălăvri/pălăvrăgi = to chatter, to talk nonsense
    palavragiu = babbler, cackler

    All these words come from the Spanish palabra, through Turkish and Greek. It is believed to have been introduced by Spanish Jews who migrated to the region.

    :) robbie
  15. mataripis

    mataripis Senior Member

    I think the word "Falar" of Portuguese is related to the word "Larynx" or voice box.The Portuguese language like french is a language that produce sounds coming from larynx.Literally, Portuguese is para larynx (falar?).
  16. CapnPrep Senior Member

    Absolutely not. Read everyone else's messages to learn the correct etymology.

Share This Page