quei (Bourguignon)
Where does "quei" come from?
The Bourguignon word 'quei' shares a deep history with the interrogative concepts of the Proto-Indo-European language, evolving from the stem *kʷo-. It eventually entered Latin as 'quālis,' meaning 'of what kind,' before passing into Old French as 'quel.' From there, it traveled into the Bourguignon dialect, ultimately landing on its modern usage as 'which' or 'what.'
Full etymology tree
- quei (Bourguignon), 'which'
- inherited quel (Old French), 'which'
- inherited quālis (Latin), 'of what kind, sort, description, nature; what kind of'
- derived *kʷo- (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited *kʷís (Proto-Indo-European), 'who, what (interrogative)'
- derived *kʷi- (Proto-Indo-European)
- derived *kʷe- (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited *kʷís (Proto-Indo-European), 'who, what (interrogative)'
- derived *h₂el- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to grow, nourish'
- derived *kʷo- (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited quālis (Latin), 'of what kind, sort, description, nature; what kind of'
- inherited quel (Old French), 'which'
Ancestors
- quel (Old French)
- qualis (Latin)
Updated July 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris