alaile

Old Irish

Alternative forms

• ala aile, allaill, araile

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *alalyos, reduplicated form of *alyos. The alternative form with r existed already in Proto-Celtic and is the source of the Brythonic forms: Breton/Welsh arall, Cornish aral.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [aˈlalʲe]

Pronoun

alaile

1. another, the other, others
   • c. 697-900, Cáin Adomnáin, published in Cáin Adamnáin: an old-Irish treatise on the law of Adamnan (1905, Oxford University Press), edited and with translations by Kuno Meyer, §46

     Mát epthai día n-apallar da·bera nech do alailiu, féich dunetáiti ind.

     If it be charms by which death is caused by anyone on another, a fine for murder with concealment of the body [is to be paid] for it.

   • c. 700–800 Táin Bó Cúailnge, from the Yellow Book of Lecan, published in The Táin Bó Cúailnge from the Yellow Book of Lecan, with variant readings from the Lebor na hUidre (1912, Dublin: Hodges, Figgis, and Co.), edited by John Strachan and James George O'Keeffe, TBC-YBL 393

     Íadais indala súil connarbo lethiu andás cró snáthaidi; as·oilg alaile comba mor béolu fid-chóich.

     He closed one eye so that it was no wider than the eye of a needle; he opened the other until it was as large as the mouth of a mead-goblet.

   • c. 760 Blathmac mac Con Brettan, published in "A study of the lexicon of the poems of Blathmac Son of Cú Brettan" (2017; PhD thesis, National University of Ireland Maynooth), edited and with translations by Siobhán Barrett, stanza 51

     Bíthi cloï tria chossa, alaili tria bánbossa.

     Nails were driven through his feet, others through his white palms.

2. (in the plural) each other
   • c. 800–825, Diarmait, Milan Glosses on the Psalms, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 7–483, Ml. 56^d4

     hua détnaig a fiaclae fri alailiu

     from gnashing his teeth against each other

3. (in the plural) some people (supplying the plural of nach in positive clauses)

For more quotations using this term, see Citations:alaile.

Usage notes

When doubled, the plural alaili…alaili means “some (people)…others”:

• c. 800, Würzburg Glosses on the Pauline Epistles, published in Thesaurus Palaeohibernicus (reprinted 1987, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies), edited and with translations by Whitley Stokes and John Strachan, vol. I, pp. 499–712, Wb. 29^a28

  Ní taibre grád for nech causa a pectha ꝉ a chaíngníma: ar bíit alaili and ro·finnatar a pecthe resíu do·coí grád forru; alaili is íarum ro·finnatar. Berir dano fri láa brátha.

  You sg should not confer orders on anyone because of his sin or of his good deed: for there are some whose sins are known before their ordination, others whose [sins] are known afterwards. Reference is made, then, to the day of judgment.

  (literally, “…before orders shall go upon them…”)

Inflection

io/iā-stem
Singular	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	alaile	alaile	alaill
Vocative	alaili
Accusative	alaile	alaili
Genitive	alaili	alaile	alaili
Dative	alailiu	alaili	alailiu
Plural	Masculine	Feminine/neuter
Nominative	alaili	alaili
Vocative	alaili alailiu*
Accusative	alaili alailiu*
Genitive	alaile
Dative	alailib
Notes	* when substantivized

Descendants

• Irish: araile

Determiner

alaile

1. another, other
2. some, (a) certain
   • c. 815-840, “The Monastery of Tallaght”, in Edward J. Gwynn, Walter J. Purton, transl., Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, volume 29, Royal Irish Academy, published 1911-1912, paragraph 7, pages 115-179:

     Bui alaili caildech doim oc ernaide Duiblittri isind faichti do guide do-som con·atallad hillis callech.

     There was a certain poor old woman waiting for Dublitir in the field, praying for him to let her sleep in the nuns’ hostel.

Inflection

io/iā-stem
Singular	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	alaile	alaile	alaill
Vocative	alaili
Accusative	alaile	alaili
Genitive	alaili	alaile	alaili
Dative	alailiu	alaili	alailiu
Plural	Masculine	Feminine/neuter
Nominative	alaili	alaili
Vocative	alaili alailiu*
Accusative	alaili alailiu*
Genitive	alaile
Dative	alailib
Notes	* when substantivized

Mutation

Old Irish mutation
Radical	Lenition	Nasalization
alaile	unchanged	n-alaile
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Further reading

• G. Toner, M. Ní Mhaonaigh, S. Arbuthnot, D. Wodtko, M.-L. Theuerkauf, editors (2019), “1 aile”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940, reprinted 2017) D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, →ISBN, §§ 486–88, pages 307–9