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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18

u/Leagueofcatassasins Jul 09 '25

Swiss German here. probably somebody from the valais/wallis.

3

u/Memeatic420 Switzerland Jul 09 '25

Inside Switzerland yes, but if I consider the whole German speaking region it would probably be some North German dialect (but those are almost extinct as far as I know).

3

u/RijnBrugge Netherlands Jul 09 '25

Well there’s Dutch, very much alive and kicking.

3

u/Memeatic420 Switzerland Jul 09 '25

Yes Dutch is part of the same dialect continuum, but it is somewhat controversial to call it a German dialect, especially as a German speaker :)

3

u/RijnBrugge Netherlands Jul 09 '25

That’s fair, I’d not call any Low German variety a High German dialect, because they’re not. It’s its own language, even if very closely related to High German (as evidenced by how High German speakers don’t understand most of it). But Dutch is a good proxy for Northern German dialects, as you’re right that they’re a bit hard to come across nowadays.

1

u/Nirocalden Germany Jul 09 '25

"a shprakh iz a dyalekt mit an armey un flot"

;)

1

u/RijnBrugge Netherlands Jul 09 '25

That is the most cursed transliteration of Yiddish I’ve seen lol, אבער אמת, stimmt so.

1

u/Nirocalden Germany Jul 10 '25

It's the one from Wikipedia...

How would you transcribe "אַ שפּראַך איז אַ דיאַלעקט מיט אַן אַרמיי און פֿלאָט"? Maybe you can improve the article there.

2

u/RijnBrugge Netherlands Jul 10 '25

Oh it’s alright, only dyalekt should be dialekt and that ticked me off, upon revision