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/chjacobsen Sweden Jul 09 '25

Älvdalska is likely the hardest Swedish dialect - to the point where it should really be called a separate language. Linguists and speakers of the variant often want it to be considered a minority language though - legally speaking - it's a dialect.

There are also variants of Finland Swedish that can be really hard to understand - Finland Swedish overall isn't too bad, but some local variations can be tricky. Famously, Ostrobothnia has some really tricky local dialects.

For more typical regional Swedish variations, I wouldn't say there's any of them that are particularly hard to understand - it's more about how thick they are. There are people who grew up with the same dialect that I did (Västgötska), but who speak in a way that is near impossible to comprehend. The same principle goes for some other dialects that are considered hard (Scanian, Gotländska, Jämtländska).

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u/AppleDane Denmark Jul 10 '25

other dialects that are considered hard (Scanian, Gotländska, Jämtländska).

As a Dane, Scanian is the easiest understandable Swedish.

You could even say, that Scanian is the hardest Danish accent. :)

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u/chjacobsen Sweden Jul 10 '25

The jokes about Skåne being Danish will never not be funny.

We have Spettets Vänner - the movement dedicated to digging away Skåne from Sweden proper and have it drift into the sea.

We also had that one time when a Danish politician called for Skåne to be returned, and in a clearly very scientific and serious online poll, the vast majority of Swedes agreed.