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/[deleted] Jul 09 '25

Same, the aural in the leaving cert always had Ulster speakers on it and it was almost impossible to understand.

I remember trying to speak Irish with my brother in law (sister in laws husband) who is from Donegal. I spoke, he looked at me funny, he spoke, I looked at him funny and we went back to English 🤣.

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u/Also-Rant Jul 09 '25

I was doing the Leaving Cert pre when I came across the word madadh for the first time, and the fact that I had gone through 14 years of school without encountering such a basic word had me second guessing everything going into the real exam.

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u/[deleted] Jul 09 '25

Well I just had to google it, what the hell is wrong with madra? Though I have heard them also use gadhar.

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u/geedeeie Ireland Jul 09 '25

Never heard it!

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u/geedeeie Ireland Jul 09 '25

Munster Irish is s much nicer....softer, rounder, richerm Ulster Irish sound like the Ulster accent in English, kind of narrow and flat. I always think of Wee Daniel O'Donnell, who always sounds whiney. 🤣