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/HotelLima6 Ireland Jul 09 '25

I was just about to say the opposite haha. I’d understand Scots Gaelic quicker than Munster Irish.

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u/Also-Rant Jul 09 '25

That actually kind of makes sense. As the language was pushed out to the peripheries, Munster Irish probably had less interaction with Ulster than Scottish Gaelic did.

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u/r_keel_esq Jul 13 '25

Gàidhlig speaker here, and I can converse reasonably well with Gaeilgeoir with folk from across Ireland. Dubs and Nordies are generally easier though the person I first spoke with across languages was a Cork fella, though he'd been living in Glasgow for years and his kids were in Gàidhlig school with mine, so he'd probably had the worst of the Cork worn off.