The default value for auto-mode-alist currently contains the following:

     ;; .emacs or .gnus or .viper following a directory delimiter in
     ;; Unix, MSDOG or VMS syntax.
     ("[]>:/\\]\\..*\\(emacs\\|gnus\\|viper\\)\\'" . emacs-lisp-mode)
     ("\\`\\..*emacs\\'" . emacs-lisp-mode)
     ;; _emacs following a directory delimiter
     ;; in MsDos syntax
     ("[:/]_emacs\\'" . emacs-lisp-mode)

There are two non-standard spellings:

s/MSDOG/MS-DOS/
s/MsDos/MS-DOS/

Further, the second line looks like it will only match a .emacs in the root
directory, presumably because the first line will not.

Given that VMS support has been removed, can we replace the first two
pattern lines with a line that uses the pattern used above:

\\(/\\|\\`\\)

to match either start of line or directory separator? And can we then also
remove the third line, as MS-DOS syntax is not treated specially anywhere
else in this default value?

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