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alaile. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
alaile, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
alaile in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
alaile you have here. The definition of the word
alaile will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
alaile, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Old Irish
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
Pronoun
alaile
- 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 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.
- (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. 56d4
hua détnaig a fiaclae fri alailiu- from gnashing his teeth against each other
- (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. 29a28
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 are known afterwards. Reference is made, then, to the day of judgment.
- (literally, “…before orders shall go upon them…”)
Inflection
Descendants
Determiner
alaile
- another, other
- 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
Mutation
Mutation of alaile
radical |
lenition |
nasalization
|
alaile (pronounced with /h/ in h-prothesis environments)
|
unchanged
|
n-alaile
|
Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in Old Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.
Further reading
- Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “1 aile”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
- Thurneysen, Rudolf (1940) D. A. Binchy and Osborn Bergin, transl., A Grammar of Old Irish, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, →ISBN, §§ 486–88, pages 307–9; reprinted 2017