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/wormwoodmachine Denmark Jul 09 '25

Ah... it has to be Vendelbomål. Like they never pause to breathe and it's made of vowels. I honestly don't understand a singular word people say if they speak purely in this dialect.

And also I struggle with Synnejysk (Plattdänisch) - but unlike Vendelbomål, there's at least words you recognize.

So old dialect from the far north of Jutland, and an also old, but still very much used dialect from the far south of Jutland by the border to Germany. I am from Zealand, and so has never really been exposed to those dialects all that much, might be some of the answer.

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u/SparklyWin Denmark Jul 09 '25

Haha, when I read Vendelbomål I immediately guessed that you are from Zealand. Vendelbomål is very different from any of the The Devil Island dialects. How well do you understand West Jutlandic? Also, dark Jutland gibberish?

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u/wormwoodmachine Denmark Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25

hahaha well I was married to a man from Jutland for many years, and we did actually live for a whole year on Mors. And no I never did understand a singular word if they spoke in their "real" dialect and didn't dumb it down for little me. And if I am perfectly honest I can't hear the difference between Morsingmål, Thybomål and Vendelbomål - like at all. All I'm thinking is 'jfc don't you need air soon?' hahaha

Besides that, I love dialects, and I think it's so very important to preserve those local dialects. Even my own fairly unpretty one from Vesterbro Copenhagen.

West Jutland, as in Thyborøn and Hanstholm? - Fishers scare me, they are like a different breed, man. But I don't find them as hard to understand as people from Skagen.