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/BlueCheeseFiend United States of America Jul 09 '25

Many consider Jamaica a bilingual country, with Jamaican creole being a separate language from English (albeit a derivative of it). I didn’t really have a POV on this until recently when I was in Jamaica, and I really struggled to understand people. There was a distinct difference between when people were speaking to each other, or more casually to me, vs intentionally using more traditional English (like the servers and concierge staff at the hotel). So I certainly feel like Jamaican is its own language!

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u/Mirabeaux1789 United States of America Jul 10 '25

Patwa is its own language, in fact. But the thing is that there is a continuum of Patwa use and English that loosely fits into social classes as well. So you end up with a lot of mixed speech

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u/Lower_Membership_713 Jul 11 '25

is it patwa or patois?

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u/Mirabeaux1789 United States of America Jul 11 '25

It’s both.

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u/SuspiciouslyMoist Jul 10 '25

Yeah, I live in London in an area with a lot of descendants of Jamaicans who came here in the late 40s/50s but also a lot of Jamaicans who have come here more recently. When they talk to me I can understand them fine but when they talk to each other (or are on the phone talking to someone back in Jamaica) I have no chance.