yeux
French
Etymology
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
- IPA(key): /jø/
- les yeux: IPA(key): /le.z‿jø/
audio (file) Audio (Paris) (file) Audio (Paris) (file) - Rhymes: -jø
Noun
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
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
- “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