136. The following words call for special mention:—
(1) Alcüs ＜ ✱alĭqu’ ūnus = alĭquī ūnus, ‘someone’. Inflection: alcüs, alcü(n); alcüna.
(2) Alquant ＜ aliquantum, aliquanti, ‘somewhat’, ‘some’; diminutive, alquantet.
(3) Alques alque ＜ alĭquĭd, used as an invariable neuter pronoun or adverb, ‘something’, ‘somewhat’. The -s form, which originally developed before a vowel, was preferred because of the analogy of other neuter pronouns and adverbs. The preservation of the e is due to association with quez que. Alque was sometimes used as an adjective.
(4) Als al au, used as an invariable neuter pronoun, ‘something else’. Al (au) may have been detached from alques, understood as al ques. Meyer-Lübke, however, takes it, as well as Old French el, from ✱alum = aliud: Gram., II, p. 649. Als owes its -s to the analogy of other neuter pronouns, such as alques, ẹis, mais, męlhs, mẹns, pęis, etc.
(5) Altre autre ＜ alter, ‘other’, pronoun and adjective. A dative ✱altrūī, following illūī, goes back to Vulgar Latin. The Provençal forms autrüs, autrü show the influence of alcüs and negüs; autri belongs to the southeastern dialects (cf. aquẹli, ẹli, nǫstri, tüti, etc.). Inflection:—
| MASCULINE | FEMININE | ||||
| Sg. | {nom.: | autre | autres | autrüs | autra |
| {obj.: | autre | autrüi | autrü | autra | |
| Pl. | {nom.: | autre | autri | autras | |
| {obj.: | autres | autras | |||
(6) Altretals autretals ＜ alter talis; by dissimilation, atretals: by substitution of ai- (first syllable of aissi ＜ ac sīc) for atre-, aitals; by fusion of aitals and atretals, aitretals; through analogy of atressi, atrestals. Cf. § [74], 2. Inflection like that of cals (§ [134]).
(7) Altretan atretan aitan atrestan etc. ＜ alter + tantum: see altretals.