あて with meaning "per"


I've found in this site

<https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%81%82%E3%81%A6>

that ~あて can be used with meaning "per" (jisho confirms it as well), and the
site shows this example

> 一人【ひとり】あて三冊【さんさつ】 = three books per person

However, most of Japanese natives I've asked say this sounds unnatural (but
cannot explain the reason, but mostly by "internal sense of naturality") and
that they would say it with ~あたり or with ~につき.

**Then I would really like to know if that example is indeed unnatural or not,
and if so, the reason why.**

**Besides, I would like to know in which cases I can use ~あて interchangeably
with ~あたり and ~につき and to see some examples if possible.**




Before discussing whether it's unnatural or not, the main issue here is that
most young people probably have never seen or heard such an expression. As for
myself, I can only recall that I might have heard my grandparents using it
about 30 years ago, but I have no idea whether it's dialectal or simply old.
You can safely forget あて meaning "per", and use ～あたり or ～につき instead, as your
friends say.

あて meaning "to" in the context of mailing is very common.




Before discussing whether it's unnatural or not, the main issue here is that
most young people probably have never seen or heard such an expression. As for
myself, I can only recall that I might have heard my grandparents using it
about 30 years ago, but I have no idea whether it's dialectal or simply old.
You can safely forget あて meaning "per", and use ～あたり or ～につき instead, as your
friends say.

あて meaning "to" in the context of mailing is very common.

