quelê

See also: quele and quelé

Macanese

Etymology

Univerbation of Portuguese que laia (“what way”), where laia was pronounced as if spelt *leia in early Macanese.[1] Doublet of qui laia.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /keˈle/

Determiner

quelê

  1. which
    Synonym: qui

Derived terms
  • quelê-môdo (“how”, literally “in what way”)
  • quelê tánto (“any amount; a lot, many”)

Adverb

quelê

  1. very, well
    Êle já ficâ quelê afinado ― He became very angry

Usage notes
  • Like qui, quelê can be used to connect a noun with an adjective, similarly to Portuguese bem, for example:
    Irmandade quelê unido ― close-knit siblings (literally, “siblings well connected”)
    fruta quelê maduro ― ripe fruit (literally, “well-ripe fruit”)

References
  1. Batalha, Graciete Nogueira (1988) “quelê”, in Glossário do dialecto macaense: notas linguísticas, etnográficas e folclóricas [Glossary of the Macanese dialect: linguistic, ethnographic and folkloric notes], Macau: Instituto Cultural de Macau, page 62

Further reading
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