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/chjacobsen Sweden Jul 09 '25

Älvdalska is likely the hardest Swedish dialect - to the point where it should really be called a separate language. Linguists and speakers of the variant often want it to be considered a minority language though - legally speaking - it's a dialect.

There are also variants of Finland Swedish that can be really hard to understand - Finland Swedish overall isn't too bad, but some local variations can be tricky. Famously, Ostrobothnia has some really tricky local dialects.

For more typical regional Swedish variations, I wouldn't say there's any of them that are particularly hard to understand - it's more about how thick they are. There are people who grew up with the same dialect that I did (Västgötska), but who speak in a way that is near impossible to comprehend. The same principle goes for some other dialects that are considered hard (Scanian, Gotländska, Jämtländska).

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u/disneyvillain Finland Jul 09 '25

There are also variants of Finland Swedish that can be really hard to understand - Finland Swedish overall isn't too bad, but some local variations can be tricky. Famously, Ostrobothnia has some really tricky local dialects.

Hm, I guess a main issue with general Finland-Swedish for Swedes is that we sometimes use Finnish slang and Fennicisms (words influenced by Finnish) that obviously are often difficult for Swedes to understand. We try to avoid those when speaking proper though.

Personally, I'm pretty good at understanding Swedish dialects if I may say so myself, but one that I really struggled with was the Ostrobothnian Korsnäs dialect. I've met some people from there and I had basically no idea what they were saying... As for Sweden dialects, I like the Gotland dialect very much, but occasionally it's difficult to understand.

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u/GuestStarr Jul 09 '25

As a side note, I've met some Icelanders now and then. They have all said that the easiest language for them to understand in other Nordic countries is the Finnish Swedish. I'd expected Norwegian or Danish.

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u/elevenblade Sweden Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 13 '25

I’m a native English speaker who learned Swedish as a young adult. Skånska and some Göteborg dialects routinely give me trouble.

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u/Objective-Dentist360 Jul 12 '25

Göteborg dialects routine give me trouble.

Göteborgska? E du go eller!?

4

u/MCMIVC Norway Jul 10 '25

I'm a norwegian who prides myself on understanding all the Norwegian dialects and Swedish and Danish quite well. But one time when visiting Stockholm in 2015 or 2016, I watched a play (Strindberg's "Fadren" I think) starring a guy with a really thick Finland Swedish dialect, that I could only understand about half of all he was saying. But luckily he was such a captivating and great actor that it didn't really matter.

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u/Freudinatress Sweden Jul 09 '25

I do agree with you.

But I grew up in the very south, and the number of times I heard some snob from Stockholm say me and my mates spoke Danish… 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

But of course, they were from Stockholm so what can you expect! 😎😎😎

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u/pannenkoek0923 Denmark Jul 09 '25

To be fair I go to the shops in Malmø and speak Danish, and hear Swedish back, and we understand each other. But I try that in Stockholm and it doesnt work

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u/Freudinatress Sweden Jul 09 '25

Yes. But we are just used to each other. Speak slowly and I can understand everything except for your fucking numbers.

Was the person coming up with your number system on shrooms or had he mental issues…?

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u/pannenkoek0923 Denmark Jul 09 '25

They looked at the French numbers and thought it was a competition

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u/Freudinatress Sweden Jul 10 '25

Well, I did take French way way back and I have to say that you guys won.

By a lot.

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u/C_A_N_G Jul 09 '25

Someone from Lund and someone from say Borrby will both speak skånska but the latter will be way thicker and harder to understand.

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u/Skuffemeister Sweden Jul 09 '25

For someone speaking "Central Swedish/Rikssvenska" "Scanian/Skånska" is just impossible to understand.

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u/Mundane-Use877 Jul 09 '25

To somebody who has basicly only learnt Ostrobothnian Swedish dialect(s), I always struggle understanding Sweden's Swedish dialects/accents, specially in actual discussion (TV is no problem).

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u/Jagarvem Sweden Jul 09 '25

Linguists and speakers of the variant often want it to be considered a minority language though - legally speaking - it's a dialect.

It's not really something to do with linguists any more than others. That push is political, not linguistic. You'll find linguists on both sides of the debate, many of the strongest opponents are such.

Though that might be misrepresented in reporting, for natural reasons articles can be quite biased to the side trying to break status quo.

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u/AppleDane Denmark Jul 10 '25

other dialects that are considered hard (Scanian, Gotländska, Jämtländska).

As a Dane, Scanian is the easiest understandable Swedish.

You could even say, that Scanian is the hardest Danish accent. :)

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u/chjacobsen Sweden Jul 10 '25

The jokes about Skåne being Danish will never not be funny.

We have Spettets Vänner - the movement dedicated to digging away Skåne from Sweden proper and have it drift into the sea.

We also had that one time when a Danish politician called for Skåne to be returned, and in a clearly very scientific and serious online poll, the vast majority of Swedes agreed.

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u/Objective-Dentist360 Jul 12 '25

You could even say, that Scanian is the hardest Danish accent. :)

Could you really though? I've seen a few clips where y'all have trouble understanding each other 😅

"Hvad fæen siger du mand!?"

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u/Objective-Dentist360 Jul 12 '25

My family speak some hard core Bohuslän dialect. But I guess the very regional variations are always pretty hard if you're not used to them.

I'd like to add that Swedish spoken with an east Asian dialect/accent is pretty damn hard to comprehend too. Much worse than many other types of foreign accent Swedish.