diff --git a/util/locale_database/cldr.py b/util/locale_database/cldr.py
index 2436e5dbfcb..1692b872d03 100644
--- a/util/locale_database/cldr.py
+++ b/util/locale_database/cldr.py
@@ -997,29 +997,17 @@ enumdata.py (keeping the old name as an alias):
 
         return cache
 
-    def __localeAsDoc(self, name: str, aliasFor = None):
-        path = f'common/main/{name}.xml'
-        if self.root.joinpath(path).exists():
-            elt = self.__xml(path)
-            for child in Node(elt).findAllChildren('alias'):
-                try:
-                    alias = child.dom.attributes['source'].nodeValue
-                except (KeyError, AttributeError):
-                    pass
-                else:
-                    return self.__localeAsDoc(alias, aliasFor or name)
-            # No alias child with a source:
-            return elt
-
-        if aliasFor:
-            raise Error(f'Fatal error: found an alias "{aliasFor}" -> "{name}", '
-                        'but found no file for the alias')
-
-    def __scanLocaleRoots(self, name):
+    def __scanLocaleRoots(self, name: str):
         while name and name != 'root':
-            doc = self.__localeAsDoc(name)
-            if doc is not None:
-                yield Node(doc, self.__unDistinguishedAttributes)
+            path = f'common/main/{name}.xml'
+            if self.root.joinpath(path).exists():
+                elt = self.__xml(path) # which has no top-level alias children:
+                assert not any(True
+                               for child in Node(elt).findAllChildren(
+                                       'alias', allDull=True)
+                               ), (f"Locale {name} "
+                                   "has an archaic top-level alias element")
+                yield Node(elt, self.__unDistinguishedAttributes)
 
             try:
                 name = self.__parentLocale[name]
diff --git a/util/locale_database/ldml.py b/util/locale_database/ldml.py
index 48d031e8ee8..50a538b8cf1 100644
--- a/util/locale_database/ldml.py
+++ b/util/locale_database/ldml.py
@@ -233,19 +233,8 @@ class LocaleScanner (object):
         The tag codes are language, script, territory and variant; an
         empty value for any of them indicates that no value was
         provided.  The values are obtained from the primary file's
-        top-level <identity> element.  An Error is raised if any
-        top-level <alias> element of this file has a non-empty source
-        attribute; that attribute value is mentioned in the error's
-        message."""
+        top-level <identity> element."""
         root = self.nodes[0]
-        for alias in root.findAllChildren('alias', allDull=True):
-            try:
-                source = alias.dom.attributes['source'].nodeValue
-            except (KeyError, AttributeError):
-                pass
-            else:
-                raise Error(f'Alias to {source}')
-
         ids = root.findUniqueChild('identity')
         for code in ('language', 'script', 'territory', 'variant'):
             for node in ids.findAllChildren(code, allDull=True):
@@ -529,15 +518,16 @@ class LocaleScanner (object):
                     yield elt
 
             # Process roots separately: otherwise the alias-processing
-            # is excessive.
+            # is excessive (and alias only ever shows up in root.xml,
+            # always with source="locale").
             for i, selector in enumerate(tags):
                 tag, attrs = _parseXPath(selector)
 
                 for alias in tuple(_iterateEach(r.findAllChildren('alias', allDull=True)
                                                 for r in roots)):
-                    if alias.dom.attributes['source'].nodeValue == 'locale':
-                        replace = alias.dom.attributes['path'].nodeValue.split('/')
-                        retries.append(self.__xpathJoin(tags[:i], replace, tags[i:]))
+                    assert alias.dom.attributes['source'].nodeValue == 'locale', alias
+                    replace = alias.dom.attributes['path'].nodeValue.split('/')
+                    retries.append(self.__xpathJoin(tags[:i], replace, tags[i:]))
 
                 roots = tuple(_iterateEach(r.findAllChildren(tag, attrs,
                                                              allDull=allDull)