قلای

Chagatai

Alternative forms

• قالای (qalay)
• قندای (qanday), قاندای (qanday)

Etymology

Inherited from Karakhanid قالی (qali). Related to Kyrgyz кандай (kanday) and Kazakh қалай (qalai).

Ultimately from Proto-Turkic *ka- (“interrogative stem”) +‎ *-lig (“adjectival suffix”)

Pronoun

قلای (qalay)

1. how
   • (Can we date this quote?), Yasawi, Ahmad, حِکَم حضرت سلطان العارفین خواجه احمد یسوی [Words of Wisdom of Hazrat Sultan-al-Arifin Khwaja Ahmad Yasawi]‎^[1], Kazan, published 1912, page 77:

     اولار وقتده قلای‌سین دیب حالین سوردوم

     Ular väqtdä ‌qalay‌sin deb halin sordum

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Usage notes

• This word is often mistakenly considered an adverb, but actually it is a pronoun.

Synonyms

• قانداغ (qandaġ)

Descendants

• Uzbek: qalay, qandoq, qanday (via alternative form قندای (qanday) )

References

• Straughn, Christopher A. (2023) “how”, in Turkic database at Elegant Lexicon
• el-Buhari, Süleyman Özbeki (1881) Lugat-ı Çağatay ve Türki-i Osmani [Ottoman Turkish-Chagatai Dictionary]‎^[2] (in Ottoman Turkish), volume 1, page 229
• Abdollahi-Jahani, Hasan (2012) فرهنگ جغتایی - فارسی [Chagatai-Persian Dictionary]‎^[3] (in Persian), page 129

Ottoman Turkish

Etymology 1

Noun

قلای • (kalay)

1. Alternative spelling of قالای (kalay, “tin”)

Etymology 2

Adjective

قلای • (kolay)

1. Alternative spelling of قولای (kolay, “easy”)