 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Fala language" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(June 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Fala | |
|---|---|
| Xalimego | |
| Native to | Spain |
| Region | NWExtremadura |
Native speakers | (11,000 cited 1994)[1] |
Early forms | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | fax |
| Glottolog | fala1241 |
 Fala | |
Fala ("speech", also calledXalimego[2]) is aWestern Romance language commonly classified in theGalician–Portuguese subgroup, with some traits fromLeonese, spoken inSpain by about 10,500 people, of whom 5,500 live in a valley of the northwestern part ofExtremadura near the border withPortugal. The speakers of Fala live in the towns ofValverde del Fresno (Valverdi du Fresnu),Eljas (As Ellas) andSan Martín de Trevejo (Sa Martín de Trevellu). These are within the valley ofJálama, in thecomarca ofSierra de Gata.
Other names sometimes used for the language areFala deJálama orFala de Xálima, but neither of them is used by the speakers themselves, who call their linguistic varietieslagarteiru (in Eljas),manhegu /mañegu (in San Martín de Trevejo) andvalverdeiru (in Valverde del Fresno).[3]
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(June 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
In the Middle Ages, mixed varieties of Portuguese and Leonese could be found along the border between Leon and Portugal, represented in texts such as theForo de Castelo Rodrigo (13th century). Although there is no documentation on the colonization and repopulation of this area in the 13th century, there are several hypotheses of Galician citizens moving to protect the frontier against Muslims as a punishment imposed by the Leonese king, or the delivery of the territories to various military orders by KingsAlfonso IX andFernando II.
In general, philologists in favor of the Galician theory support the hypothesis that the valley is an isolated region and, therefore, the Galician colonists maintain their way of speaking in a "pure" form because of the lack of external influences. However, the valley is contiguous to the Portuguese border, making it a good candidate to be classified into the lands exchanged byCastille andPortugal, by theTreaty of Alcanices. Previously, during thereconquista, the border had a snaky shape. The treaty was done to make it straighter, which broadly was achieved by delivering theRibacoa to Portugal (Guarda, the ancient border post, is now 40 km (25 miles) westwards of the new one), and receiving the lands east of the Erges-Tagus-Sever rivers,[citation needed] 180 km (110 miles) of frontier delimitated by water-courses. The agreement among monarchs didn't force the populations to a re-settlement, so a few have changed of country, not by their own will, but due to the change of borders.
On 3 August 1992, the associationFala i Cultura was founded, among its goals being the compilation of a common grammar (based on the Galician one) and the commemoration ofu día da nosa fala (the day of our language) celebrated once a year from 1992 in Eljas, 1993 in Valverde and 1994 in San Martín.[citation needed]
It was not until 1998 that the first literary work in Fala was published:Seis sainetes valverdeiros, written by Isabel López Lajas and published in 1998 by Edicións Positivas (Santiago de Compostela). It was on this date that the Gabinete de Iniciativas Transfronterizas (Office of Cross-Border Initiatives) started to take interest in Fala and to promote its study, publishing in 1999 scientific works and celebrating in May a "Congress onA Fala".[citation needed]
On 14 June 2000, Fala was recognized by the Ministry of Culture of the Junta de Extremadura asBien de Interés Cultural.[4] Nowadays, although the inhabitants of Jalama Valley can speak Spanish, most of them are bilingual because at home and in other activities outside school, they continue using the local language.
In 1992,[5] a survey conducted byJosé Enrique Gargallo Gil [es] (a professor at the University of Barcelona) collected the following data regarding the use of Spanish in family conversation:
In September/December 1993 a survey was published in issue No. 30 ofAlcántara Magazine by José Luis Martín Galindo, which showed the opinion of the people in San Martín de Trevejo as to the nature of Fala in the following percentages:
The survey involved only twenty people (over 960 neighbours) and there was no alternative answer for those respondents who believed that Fala is a dialect ofGalician. It is argued that the absence of this option was logical since theories about the possible relation of Fala with Galician were hardly known.
In 1994, a new study showed that 80% of respondents learned to speak Spanish in school. The percentage of parents who claim to use Fala when speaking with their children was as follows:
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(January 2026) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Bilabials | Labiodentals | Dentals | Alveolars | Postalveolars | Palatals | Velars | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasals | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||
| Stops | pb | td | kg | ||||
| Affricates | t͡ʃ | ||||||
| Fricatives | (β) | fv | (ð) | sz | ʃʒ | (ɣ) | |
| Trills | r | ||||||
| Flaps | ɾ | ||||||
| Approximants | j | w | |||||
| Laterals | l | ʎ |
| Anterior | Posterior | |
|---|---|---|
| Closed | i | u |
| Close-mid | e | o |
| Open | a | |
It has no regular orthography and when it is written it is based on Spanish. This proposed alphabet based on Portuguese has 23 letters:[6]
| Upper case letters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | X | Z | |||
| Lower case letters | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h | i | j | l | m | n | o | p | q | r | s | t | u | v | x | z | |||
Some Fala vocabulary are shown in the table below.[7]
| Latin | Galician | Fala | Extremaduran | Portuguese | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hodie | hoxe | hoxii | hoy | hoje | hoy | today |
| localem | lugar | lugal | lugal | lugar | lugar | place |
| dicere | dicir | izil | izil | dizer | decir | to say/to tell |
| oculus | ollo | ollu | oju | olho | ojo | eye |
| aqua | auga | agua | áugua | água | agua | water |
| creare | crear | crial | crial | criar | crear | to create |
