Walla
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In American radio, film, and television, walla is a sound effect imitating the murmur of a crowd in the background. A group of actors brought together in the post-production stage of film production to create this murmur is known as a walla group. According to one story, walla received its name during the early days of radio, when it was discovered that having several people repeat the sound walla in the background was sufficient to mimic the indistinct chatter of a crowd. Nowadays, walla actors make use of real words and conversations, often improvised, tailored to the languages, speech patterns, and accents that might be expected of the crowd to be mimicked. Walla is called rhubarb in the UK and rhabarber in Germany, perhaps in part reflecting the varying textures of crowd noise in the different countries. Another similar phrase is "carrots and peas." The TV show South Park often parodies this concept by having angry mobs mutter "rabble rabble rabble," sometimes clearly and distinctly.
In Arabic, the word walla or wallah, is a way of swearing by God -- "wa allâh" literally means "and (the) God", but perhaps best translated as "by God". It is used frequently and casually for taking an oath, for swearing, or for emphasis. It is often given more emphasis and "swearing" character, by attaching a first person genitive suffix, -î, as in "wallahi", "my God".
