que

que¹ relative pronoun

Pronunciation

• Central: /kə/^[1]
• Valencia: /ke/^[1]

Etymology

The word for the relative pronoun is inherited from Latin quem (“whom, which”), the masculine accusative of the relative quī (“who, which”).^[3][4][5][1] The DCVB names both quid and the accusative as its sources.^[2]

Coromines explains that the feminine forms of the Latin relative were lost early in spoken Latin, as inscriptions show from the 5th century, so that the masculine accusative served for every gender.^[3] In Old Catalan the pronoun was at first the accusative that went with the nominative qui, and it fully replaced that form as subject only in modern times.^[3]

The same accusative is Spanish quien, Portuguese quem and Romanian cine, all used as pronouns for persons.^[6][7] The Latin relative goes back through Proto-Italic *kʷoi to Proto-Indo-European *kʷís.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Coromines finds the pronoun in its essential functions from the first documents;^[3][4][5] Bruguera and the GDLC date it to the Homilies d'Organyà.^[3][4][5] CICA's lemma, which does not separate the pronoun from the conjunction, has six occurrences already in the first half of the 11th century.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Llull uses que as subject, mostly with a thing as antecedent, as direct object and after prepositions.^[9] Labèrnia's dictionary of 1839 describes it as a relative for all three genders, and the Valencian Martí Gadea notes that after the masculine article it became qui, to keep it apart from the neuter.^[10][11] Fabra's norm keeps que for the relative not governed by a preposition, and què after one.^[12][5]

Timeline

• 12th century – the relative in the Homilies d'Organyà.^[4][5]
• 13th century – Llull uses it as subject, object and after prepositions.^[9]
• 1839 – Labèrnia's dictionary.^[10]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary separates que from què.^[12]

Meanings

Pronoun

1. that, which, who: the relative pronoun when no preposition governs it, as subject, direct object or complement of time: la noia que canta.^[13][5]
2. With a whole clause as antecedent: which, a thing that.^[13]
3. el que: what, that which, introducing a relative clause used as a noun.^[13][2]

que² conjunction; how!

Pronunciation

• Central: /kə/^[1]
• Valencia: /ke/^[1]

Etymology

The word for the conjunction is inherited from Latin quid (“what”), the neuter interrogative pronoun, which in spoken Latin took over the functions of classical quod (“that, because”) and received some uses of quia (“because”).^[3][4][5][1] The DCVB puts the weight on the second: it derives the conjunction from the Latin causal word, which replaced ⟨quod⟩ in Vulgar Latin and was influenced by the forms of the relative.^[2]

Coromines shows the completive use of ⟨quia⟩ in Petronius and in the pilgrimage account of Egeria, and notes that it was pronounced ⟨qua⟩; with Meyer-Lübke he holds that the completive conjunction comes at least in large part from it, as the Old Galician-Portuguese and Old Spanish ⟨ca⟩ show.^[3] The causal sense may continue the same word, merged with the conjunction very early, or may have passed to ⟨quid⟩ from ⟨quod⟩.^[3]

In comparisons the conjunction comes from a confusion with quam (“than”), which as an unstressed word would have given ⟨ka⟩ in Catalan.^[3][2] The exclamatory adverb is the same word in Wiktionary's analysis.^[1]

The same Latin pronoun is Spanish que, Portuguese que, Italian che and Romanian ce.^[6][14] It continues Proto-Indo-European *kʷid.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Bruguera and the GDLC date the conjunction, like the pronoun, to the Homilies d'Organyà.^[4][5] The comparative que is frequent from that first literary text on: Caritad és pròpriament que om am Déu màs que nula res, “charity is, properly, that one love God more than anything”.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The causal que is frequent in the first literary texts: Jaume I's chronicle and Muntaner use it for “because, since”, and Vicent Ferrer has it in his sermons.^[3] Medieval prose also used it to join the members of a sentence, and with a negation for “only” (Desclot: no n escaparen que dos milia).^[15]

The exclamatory que before an adjective or adverb (que bonic!) is used once by Vicent Ferrer about 1410, but the dictionaries first record it in Lacavalleria's of 1696.^[3]

Timeline

• 12th century – the completive and comparative que in the Homilies d'Organyà.^[3][4]
• 1283 – Desclot uses no … que for “only”.^[15]
• c. 1410 – Vicent Ferrer uses the exclamatory que.^[3]
• 1696 – Lacavalleria's dictionary records que with an adjective in exclamations.^[3]
• 1932 – Fabra's dictionary.^[12]

Meanings

Conjunction

1. that: introduces subject, predicative and object clauses: Diu que vindrà demà.^[5][2]
2. Introduces adverbial clauses of time, cause (“for, since”), consequence, purpose or condition.^[5][2]
3. than: in comparisons, often followed by an expletive no.^[1][3]

Adverb

1. how, what: exclamatory, before an adjective, an adverb or (as an adjective) a noun: Que alt que és!^[13][5]