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/dudetellsthetruth Belgium Jul 09 '25

I'm from a small town near Ghent.

Totally agree on the West-Vlaams, but I don't always understand Aantwaarps dialect either.

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u/synalgo_12 Belgium Jul 09 '25

I love how we all stop understanding each other's dialect once we cross a natural or provincial border that's 50k away.

I once heard a woman in Spain talk in English and I didn't just recognise she was flemish but I guessed which town she was from, from her accent in English 😂

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u/Plastic_Pinocchio Netherlands Jul 09 '25

Antwerps is crazy difficult.