I'm old enough that it's always Eff Ay Ell and never Fal.
Hearing Ian or Erin saying Fal just trips a circuit breaker.
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Nope, you say Fal. If you want to do the Acronym thing, you must say it in the original French as it comes from the words Fusil Automatique Léger. In a pinch you can do Spanish as it is close enough: Fusil Automatico Ligero.
ReplyDelete*I* don't say fal. You can if you want.
DeleteBesides, FAL is multi-lingual. F is ef, A is Ay, and L is el in both French and English.
Mr Fleetwood, who lugged one all over Africa, says it's F-A-L too. Of all of us, he's earned the right to call it anything he wants.
If I can ever find some corroborating evidence I'll tell the story about my lugging one around.
When I toted a C1A1 we just called it an F_N. Now some said F_A_L but I never heard anyone say fal. It sounds gay. Of course in those days you could still say gay.
DeleteThat amuses me because FN didn't make the C1A1!
DeleteEff Ay El, all the time, but like the iterations of carbine and Garand, I know they're all acceptable. Hell I pronounce "cloaca" "cloaeca" because I had only read the term in books before I heard it in Latin class (means 'sewer') and I like that better, even though it is 100% wrong in English.
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