What Language Did Joan Of Arc Speak? (Helpful Content!)

Joan of Arc would have spoken Middle French. There would have been dialects of French and a standard form, and it’s likely she knew both well. She would, then, have spoken the French dialect of her native Domrémy, possibly a Champenois or Lorrain dialect. The simple answer is she spoke French.

Joan of Arc is one of the most important figures of French history.

She remains to this day a symbol of feminine empowerment, and her cultural influence is impossible to ignore.

Being such an important figure of French history, it will likely come as little surprise that her native language was an older form of French.

Let’s find out more.

What was Joan of Arc’s native language?

Joan of Arc’s native language was French, though not the modern form of French which we are familiar with.

Joan of Arc was born around 1412, in a small village called Domremy, in the Vosges department of north-east France.

She was born to a peasant farmer who had about 50 acres of land, later becoming a village official.

At the time she was born, the Hundred Years’ War had already been raging for around 80 years.

This was, rather than a continuous war, a series of conflicts which began in 1337, between England and France.

This war had left France economically devastated and politically divided.

In 1425, her village was attacked and cattle stolen, which inspired this sense in France that the English must be pushed out of France to reach peace.

All of this is to point out that Joan of Arc was not only of French descent, but her French identity became quite important to her from a young age.

At the time and place in which she lived, multiple dialects of French would have been spoken.

These dialects were not really distinct languages in any sense of the word.

They were subtly different but would have been entirely mutually intelligible, so the simplest answer is that she spoke French, more specifically Middle French.

While a modern historical division, Middle French was spoken from around the 14^th to the 16^th Century.

Based on some minor points of her own correspondence, written in French, it seems that the dialect she spoke would have been either a Lorrain or a Champenois dialect.

Again, there are really only minor differences that mark this out, but undoubtedly she would have spoken one of these regional dialects as well as being able to speak the standard French of the time.

Was Joan of Arc French or German?

Joan of Arc was French. Domrémy, her home village, is located in north-eastern France, and thus is only a stone’s throw from modern day Germany.

However, Germany did not exist as a nation state at this time—indeed, neither did France in the modern sense.

Most of modern day Germany was, at Joan’s time, known as the Holy Roman Empire.

In no sense whatsoever was Joan of Arc German; she was born in France, to French parents, and spent her life fighting in France and speaking the French language.

Did Joan of Arc have a French accent?

While it might not have been as recognizable to modern ears as a French accent, certainly Joan of Arc would have spoken with a French accent.

Again, her dialect of French was highly regional and thus there would have been both subtle and significant differences in pronunciation between her own French and the French of other people at the time.

Parisian French, for instance, was considered the standard form of French.

Joan’s dialect would have been quite different to this and, as a result, so would her accent.

But, again, even to modern ears it ultimately would sound French—though, naturally, we can’t really “know” anything for certain about the accent of a woman who died in the 15^th Century.

Why is Joan of Arc called La Pucelle?

In Europe at this time, a great deal of emphasis was placed on virginity and the “purity” of women.

Joan of Arc was often called Jeanne la Pucelle in French, or sometimes just la Pucelle.

This is a term in French that translates to “Joan the Maiden”, emphasizing the importance of her virginity.

She would later become known as the Maid of Orleans.

La Pucelle, then, was simply a French nickname for her based on the perceived virtues of her having been a virgin.

What is the difference between Jeanne d Arc and Joan of Arc?

The only difference between these two names is the language.

“Joan of Arc” is a highly anglicized version of a French name—Joan of Arc would not herself have used the name “Joan”, nor would her family.

Her name in French is Jeanne, and thus in French, her full title is rendered Jeanne d’Arc.

The “Arc” is simply an approximation of her father’s family name, and this is not a nickname.

You will often find in European naming conventions that someone is called first-name of their family name, such as Ludwig van Beethoven or of course Jeanne d’Arc.

French is a language not only with multiple distinct versions throughout history, but also with multiple dialects depending on where in the country you are.

A few very subtle quirks in Joan of Arc’s personal idiom seem to suggest she spoke either a Lorrain or Champenois French dialect; the simpler answer is that she spoke Middle French!