yeux

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle French yeulx, yeux, from Old French ieuz, plural form of oeil ~ oil ~ uel. A regular^[1] outcome of Latin oculōs, the accusative plural of oculus (the source of œil). Mildred Pope explains its phonetic development as becoming *[ˈɔːʎos] > *[ˈweʎts] > *[weuts] via regular sound changes, followed by a regular dissimilation of [weu] to [jeu] (see for example Latin locus > *[lweu] > Old French lieu, iocus > *[dʒweu] > Old French gieu > jeu).^[2] The resulting [jeuts] then becomes modern [jø].

Old and Middle French present many variant forms of this plural, including, from Godefroy's Dictionnaire du Moyen Français: ialz/yalz, yolz, olz/ols, uelz/uels/eus, ils, oulz.

Pronunciation[edit]

IPA^(key): /jø/
les yeux: IPA^(key): /le.z‿jø/
audio (file)
Audio (Paris) (file)
Audio (Paris) (file)
Rhymes: -jø

Noun[edit]

yeux m pl

plural of œil, eyes
Il a les yeux bleus. ― He has blue eyes.

Il a de beaux yeux bleus. ― He has beautiful blue eyes.

Usage notes[edit]

Unlike most words beginning with consonantal y /j/, this word triggers liaison with valid preceding words. Eg:

les yeux /le.z‿jø/
les grands yeux /le.ɡʁɑ̃.z‿jø/
Il a de beaux yeux /i.l‿ad.bo.z‿jø/

References[edit]

^ “œil”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
^ Pope, Mildred (1934) From Latin to Modern French: with special consideration of Anglo-Norman, 2nd edition, Manchester: Manchester University Press, § 556:
The triphthong ˈueu [...]; the first element was ordinarily differentiated to i and consonantalised to j, which merged in dž but differentiation was ordinarily checked by preceding labial and velar consonants: ueu > jö: ueuts > iös ieuz [...] džueu > džjö > žö jeu [...] fueu > fö feu

[1] “œil”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

[2] Pope, Mildred (1934) From Latin to Modern French: with special consideration of Anglo-Norman, 2nd edition, Manchester: Manchester University Press, § 556:
The triphthong ˈueu [...]; the first element was ordinarily differentiated to i and consonantalised to j, which merged in dž but differentiation was ordinarily checked by preceding labial and velar consonants: ueu > jö: ueuts > iös ieuz [...] džueu > džjö > žö jeu [...] fueu > fö feu

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