weep alain

[Gość: sweety24]

what does it mean? The whole sentence goes: "She'd weep alain"

[jeanie_mccake]

'Alain' is Scots for 'alone', but 'to weep' in Scots is 'tae greet',
and 'alone' in this context would be 'hirsel' in most modern Scots
dialects.
She'd weep alone = She'd greet (bi) hirsel.
'She'd weep alain' sounds like pseudo-poetic nonsense, although it
could be some weird posh version of Geordie.

[jeanie_mccake]

On the other hand, if the sentence is more than 500 years old it
could mean she'd weep lying down (a-lain).

[Gość: Steve]

Jeanie's comments (thanks J I had no idea), gives some support to my initial
reaction it is from a modern novel trying to give the impression of a Scottish
person talking for people (like me) who are completely ignorant of Scots'
English dialect. I'd go for 'crying by herself'.

It is presumably intended to show loneliness, but it may also reflect on the
saying 'Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone' (known
to exist from 1883), ie since she was never happy, no one cared about her.