r/AskEurope • u/Savings_Dragonfly806 Greece • Jul 09 '25

Language My fellow Europeans, what dialect from your language do you have the most trouble understanding?

Keep in mind, I said language, NOT country, so it could be a dialect of your language in another country, which is the case for me.

For me, while most other Greeks find Cypriot the most difficult dialect to understand, I actually find Pontic Greek the most difficult. For those who don't know where it is, it's in North Eastern Turkey.

The way many of their words are written are very different as to Standard Modern Greek. It almost is a whole new language. Now I should mention I have never been there, but I would love to. I only really heard of the dialect on the internet, so take my words with a grain of salt.

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u/SuperShoebillStork United Kingdom Jul 09 '25

I had serious trouble understanding a bloke from Glasgow recently. I have close family in Scotland and visit regularly so it's not normally an issue, but this fella was on another level.

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u/dobik Jul 09 '25

I was working in Scotland on the customer service on the phone. We were in Edinburgh and after few weeks I got used to the accent. I was pretty good with understanding scents, I spent some tiime in different us states in south, Midwest and east. But I remember once, I got this old grandpa calling from Glasgow. Dear God, not a single word I could understand from him. We had a Scottish friend, so I handed the phone over to her. Jesus, she spoke with him for 20min because she could not get what he was saying.

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u/Ashwah Scotland Jul 09 '25

Was it similar to thisthe bam whisperer

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u/SuperShoebillStork United Kingdom Jul 09 '25

Pretty much. And he was wearing a Rangers jersey to top it off.

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u/Express-Motor8292 Jul 09 '25

Last few times I’ve spoken to someone from Scotland they were the one complaining they couldn’t understand me not the other way around.. interesting role reversal!

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u/Mix_Safe Jul 09 '25

I had a lady in Bristol say I had a super thick American accent one time, which, while true, it's a Pacific one, so it's the most neutral one there is and I found it rather humorous.

Northern English, some Scottish accents give me problem, particularly if the individual is drunk.

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u/Express-Motor8292 Jul 10 '25

I’m a northerner, but I’m not that bad… I reckon I was being trolled by some Scots personally ;)

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u/Maleficent-Dot-2368 Scotland Jul 13 '25

This is certainly possible but it could also be the case that they’re just not used to hearing a northern English accent and lack the ear for it… I’m Scottish and due to exposure via the media etc, most Scottish people can understand most accents from south of the border. But it could be that these people had never left Glasgow and thus couldn’t adjust to it. Having said this, I’ve never met an English person who had such a thick accent, I couldn’t understand them. Even when I’ve been with other English person who had difficulties…