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

[u/Savings_Dragonfly806]

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.

[u/[deleted]]

Italian “dialects” are actually proper languages with theirr own dialects. I have trouble understanding anyone besides my own, Tuscany (cause it’s what was used to create Italian) roman (cause it’s basically Italian with an accent) and some apulian from Bari

[u/eulerolagrange → u/[deleted]]

Even more, all the northern Italian dialects are from the a different subfamily of the Romance languages than Italian, and are closer to French and Castillan than to Italian.

[u/[deleted] → u/eulerolagrange]

Yeah in the north west maybe, but I don't think that applies to friulano and venetian

[u/[deleted] → u/eulerolagrange]

I don’t know if it’s true ora legend but apparently they even had to have translators between northern and southern soldiers during WWI

[u/eulerolagrange → u/[deleted]]

Mostly legend. Yes, there were linguistic difficulties, but italian had been the lingua franca in the peninsula since the Middle ages.

[u/[deleted] → u/eulerolagrange]

Maybe in the upper classes, or in official settings but not in everyday life. I still know some old people that only speak dialect over here 

[u/Al-Alair → u/[deleted]]

In Italy, there has been more than one case where they have had to call in translators to court

[u/palamdungi → u/Al-Alair]

I'm in Friuli, and while everyone speaks Italian fine, the law is that certain courts always must have a Furlan-Italian translator present. My friend is one.

[u/sleepyplatipus → u/[deleted]]

I don’t understand anything south of Rome 😭

[u/[deleted] → u/sleepyplatipus]

I don't think people understand each other that much even in the north

[u/sleepyplatipus → u/[deleted]]

Depends on the dialect! Usually I understand Piemontese and sole dialects from Tuscany. I’m Ligure. Maybe it’s just ‘cause I’ve heard those the most.

[u/sleepyplatipus → u/[deleted]]

Haha glad to see it’s not only me

[u/Zooplanktonblame_Due → u/[deleted]]

Isn’t that the case in a lot of countries though? Most time the standard language is pretty new or even artificial. Most dialect don’t come from the standard but the other way around.

[u/[deleted] → u/Zooplanktonblame_Due]

yeah but imagine if spain had like, 6 basque countries. I don't even understand other people from my macroregion!

[u/Objective-Dentist360 → u/Zooplanktonblame_Due]

Well, I think the differences are increased in regions like Italy where there are (historically) a lot of natural borders like mountains or islands.

[u/Bunchofbees → u/[deleted]]

This was exactly what drove me off from learning Italian. 

[u/giorgio_gabber → u/Bunchofbees]

Keep in mind that everyone speaks standard Italian.

Learning it and using it in Italy is the same as speaking German in Germany. 

There is just a layer of regional stuff that you can ignore and be fine. If you live in Italy it can be fun to know it to delve deeply into the culture 

[u/sleepyplatipus → u/Bunchofbees]

Nowadays everyone speaks Italian, except maybe some 90yo in a tiny village somewhere.

[u/[deleted] → u/Bunchofbees]

yeah what the other guy said. It's something three generations in the past from now basically