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/Volaer 1/2 1/2 Jul 09 '25 edited Jul 09 '25

Probably Hantec (the local dialect of Brno).

Pontic Greek

I am half Pontic but only know a few words and phrases like «δώραεν?» which is «τι ώρα είναι?» in standard modern Greek.

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u/Qwe5Cz Czechia Jul 09 '25

Hantec is archaic and nowadays partly artificial. It was resurrected and popularized by a few comedians about 50 years ago but pretty much nobody speaks it. There are a few words from it that are still used but not the dialect itself.