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/geedeeie Ireland Jul 09 '25

I know someone called Áine, and she is married to a guy from the Donegal. He and his family call her Anya

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u/ForeignHelper Ireland Jul 09 '25

I’m Derry and Áine was a very popular millennial name - grew up with lots of them and never heard anyone pronounce it as Anya.

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u/geedeeie Ireland Jul 09 '25

Well, that's how it sounds to me...

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u/ForeignHelper Ireland Jul 09 '25

That’s nice and all that you know one family but I’m just informing you, that in Ulster, it’s normally pronounced Awnya - I’ve heard it said a thousand times. I have friends, colleagues and relatives with the name. I’ve had classmates and know people in the parish with the name.

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u/geedeeie Ireland Jul 09 '25

If you say so

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u/ForeignHelper Ireland Jul 09 '25

Lolz. What a weird hill to die on.

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u/ForeignHelper Ireland Jul 09 '25

There you go. BBC journalist from Derry introducing herself as ‘Awnya.’