Asturian-American Migration Forum

xeláu: pronounced shay-LOUGH. Xelada: pronounced shay-LAH-dah. Xelao: pronounced shay-LAH-oh. Past participle of the verb xelar (pronounced shay-LAHR), to freeze. Derived from xelu (pronounced shay-Loo), ice. To be frozen, as with terror or stupefaction. Dumfounded, dumbstruck, so shocked or astonished as to be rendered speechless. Used in similar fashion as ablucao/ablucada. Literally, frozen as with fruit or crops in the Asturian countryside from October to April.
Usage examples: Quedei xeláu güei na oficina cuando dixera Nolo que nun diba trabayar con nos. (I was dumbstruck today when Nolo told us he would no longer be working with us.)
El tou xenru morreu xeláu. (Your son-in-law froze to death.)
Hai xelu abondo na carretera, tate sollerte! (There’s a lot of ice on the road, keep your eyes open!)
Cayeu una xelada anueite ya perdiouse la berza. (There was a bad freeze last night that ruined the kale.)

Idiomatic expressions:
Tener la sangre xelao. (To be level-headed, composed, sensible.)
Xelaes de marzo nieve n’abril. (folk wisdom: When there is a freezing spell in March, there is sure to be snow in April.)

In the central area we would say xelá, instead of xelada.

Using Is's example with the noun: "Cayó una xelá y perdiose la berza!"

Meaning shocked, speechless, etc.: "Dejóme xelá. Si me corten nun sangro." (I was terribly shocked. If they had cut me, I wouldn't have bled."

As a young boy in Spelter, I would hear the old timers talk about the snow and ice in the winter time. The word that they used for ice was not "xelar". I can say the word, but have no idea how to spell it.

Did it sound like "nieve" (nee-EH-vay)? That would be "snow" in both Castilian and Asturianu, I think.

"Ice" would be "helado" (hay-LAH-tho) in Castilian and "axeláu" or "xeláu" in Asturian, I think.

[Art: "Ice" isn't "helado". I've corrected my bad translation in the next post.]

Ron, you can call me in the afternoon and tell me how it sounded.

Oops. Ron's right. He wrote to me in an email that the word sounded like YELL-oh. That's "hielo", a noun meaning "ice". That's a Castilian word; in Asturian it'd be "xelu".

"Helado" is an adjective meaning frozen or icy; frosty.

"Helado" is also a noun meaning ice cream. And that's the source of my mistake.

Both helado and hielo come from the same root: "helar" which means to freeze, to chill, or to ice up.