The G'mara Bavli says in Shabas 63:
אמר רב כהנא, "כד הוינא בר תמני סרי שנין, והוה גמירנא ליה לכוליה תלמודא, ולא הוה ידענא דאין מקרא יוצא מידי פשוטו..."
Rav Kahana said, "When I was 18 years old, and I had learned the entire Talmud, and I didn't know that a verse never forsakes its simple meaning..."
All over the G'mara the term תלמודא refers to extrapolation from the Torah using a specific methodology and not necessarily a set body of text or teaching, which is what the colloquial term refers to today. However in the above passage it seems to clearly mean the latter - a set body of teaching, which Rav Kahana had exhausted. (Note that the -א suffix is a definite article.)
What exactly is he referring to if at the time of his speaking the Talmud had not yet been composed? Is this a בבלי\ירושלמי trick?
Answer
There were a few hundred years between the transcription of Mishna and that of what we call the Gemora. While people had informal notes, it was still an oral system. So when the Talmud refers to Gemora it has in mind all the oral lectures and "notes" that were happening in Yeshivas as well as Toseftas, Breisas and even the Mishna and its unwritten comments.
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