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This is from Proust:

Et puis quoi? ajouta- t-elle (en croyant devoir accompagner d’un clignement d’yeux malicieux et tendre ces mots qu’elle récita par bonté,

This is from Zola:

La soupe était froide, couverte d'yeux de graisse qui se figeaient

Why is 'de' elided? And does it change the meaning if it's instead 'des yeux'

I also found this

https://www.proz.com/kudoz/french/linguistics/1849786-de-yeux-dyeux.html

but it was not very helpful.

bobsmith76
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2 Answers2

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De is always elided with yeux.

Knowing that, your question is not really about elision but about the difference in meaning between "de + noun" vs "des + noun". You'll find many questions about this on this site, it has been answered before.

As to why it's elided, I would say it's because it's treated as a vowel, so naturally there's an elision. It happens in all words starting with a vowel sound ("d'ici, d'hier, d'avoir"), except those with an aspirated h ("de haricot, de hibou").

It's not that obvious that y is treated as a vowel because technically it's a consonant here. In most other words starting with Y it does acts as a consonant ("lait de yack", "crème de yaourt"). I think the reason is that yeux is a much, much older word and dates from a time when French phonology was very different. Maybe it was pronounced closer to an \i\ sound before it shifted into a \j\ sound.

Teleporting Goat
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  • Thanks, I appreciate you helping me out. – bobsmith76 Jan 30 '23 at 10:15
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    Also a good hint that the singular begins with a vowel. Since we know that French does not pluralize by changing initial sounds, the y is awfully suspicious as a grapheme somehow equivalent to œi. I remember learning that these etymological semivowels are to be analyzed as occupying a split nucleus, whereas borrowed semivowels tend to occupy the onset, leading to the elision and liaison differences you noted between yacht and yeux and whatnot. Also discussed in my gratuitous appendix here... – Luke Sawczak Jan 30 '23 at 12:51
  • Also Île d'Yeu. – jlliagre Jan 30 '23 at 13:24
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    @jlliagre Oui je me suis fait la même réflexion. Yeux est le seul nom commun à avoir cette particularité mais on le retrouve aussi dans quelques noms propres, notamment des toponymes (en plus d'Yeu j'ai trouvé Yerres, Yutz, Yèvres, et surprenamment (?), York) – Teleporting Goat Jan 30 '23 at 13:55
  • Are d’yeux and Dieu homophones? More specifically, tautomorphemic /dj/ often (generally?) becomes [dʲ] or [ɟ], so Dieu can be [d̪jø], but also [dʲø ~ ɟø]. Does this also happen with d’yeux, or does that always remain [d̪jø]? – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jan 30 '23 at 18:18
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    @JanusBahsJacquet Yes, "d'yeux" and "Dieu" are homophones. – Stef Jan 31 '23 at 09:37
  • In addition to the answer, take a look at the sentences: « je te dévore des yeux » (something like « I’m staring intensely at you with the eyes ») and « je n’ai d’yeux que pour toi » (something like « I only have eyes for you »). Both sentences would be incorrect with the other form. – Plop Feb 01 '23 at 23:04
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The letter ‘y’ represents a flexible sound which can be perceived as a consonant or as a vowel depending on the context. Here, it is definitely the latter; hence the elision. (It's a bit like the contraction of “do you” to “d’you”, although not exactly the same thing is happening there.)

As for “des yeux” versus “d'yeux”, one has an article while the other doesn’t. However, French differs from English in that, for example, both of the following constructions are correct:

  • Une maladie des yeux
  • Une maladie d'yeux

(despite the fact that the first of the two is much more common), while in English we would always say “a disease of the eyes” (and of course, usually, “an eye disease”).

Segorian
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