たら - a 'warning' or an 'if'?


> 時間がなかったので急いで食べていたら、舌を噛んでしまった。

Does this mean the person bit down and hurt his tongue? Or is it a warning not
to eat fast?




Technically, it's not a warning, though I suppose it could be taken that way
though I doubt that's the intended meaning. Also, it's not really an _if_ in
the sense that we would mean in English.

The speaker is saying, _Because there was no time, when I was quickly eating
my food, I bit my tongue._

As @aguijonazo pointed out, the form of 噛んでしまった is a clue as to how to
construe ~たら. 舌を噛んでしまった is definitely _I bit my tongue_. Since this is thus a
_fait accompli_ , the clause ending in ~たら cannot be a conditional; it can
only be spelling out the circumstances in which _I bit my tongue_ occurred.

