ealle

ealle is a historical form found in Old English texts as the inflected plural or attributive form of the adjective eall, meaning "all" or "the whole." It functions as a determiner or modifier before plural nouns, particularly in the nominative and accusative cases. A typical usage would be ealle menn, meaning "all men," where ealle agrees in number with the noun. In Beowulf and other Old English literature, ealle appears to stress totality or completeness.

Linguistic context and etymology: the form reflects the Germanic inflectional system. Cognates appear across West Germanic languages, such as Old High German all/alla and Old Saxon all, and are related to the Proto-Germanic word *allaz meaning "all." The modern English lexeme all preserves the same root, but the specific inflected form ealle fell out of routine use in later centuries and is encountered mainly in philological quotations or discussions of Old English grammar.

Modern scholarly relevance: in contemporary linguistics and philology, ealle is cited to illustrate adjective declension patterns and the historic syntax of Old English, including agreement with nouns in number and case and its interaction with word order and determiners. It is not a living word in modern English, but it serves as a valuable data point for studying the evolution of the language and its gender-number agreement.

See also: All (word), Old English grammar, Proto-Germanic language.