I’ve always wondered why the character Tonks in the Harry Potter books says “Wotcher!” as a greeting - apparently some people say it that way!
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Yes, that’s “Wotche(r)” (non-rhotic generic British English, so no actual ‘r’ on the end), which people do say, as opposed to **wodger, which I basically just made up.
Quite possibly so – but a Czech friend is very pleased Ahoj! is the Czech for ‘Hi’, because it makes them sound like a nation of pirates. Although I’d have thought the Dutch had a prouder naval tradition than the landlocked Czechs…
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But which, especially when speaking at normal (quick) speed, should sound just the same.
I still get tripped up by the “silent r” in British English . . .
Pronunciation doubts:
I usually hear heibio and peidio/beidio as hibo and pido/bido. Is it right?
This, even though - taking inspiration from another thread - I hear pasio as passio - with lots of s and a clear i!
I might be wrong, but I think this is how ‘io’ verbs are usually pronounced in parts of SW Wales
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It makes sense, but what if I hear the same person(s)* pronounce pasio and/or ymlacio with a very clear “io”?
*one of which, Iestyn of SSiW by the way
Good question! Maybe for SSiW he intends to prounce it as ‘io’ but sometimes/with some words it slips through as ‘o’?? 
Maybe. It’s just I noticed that I had this impression with Iestyn and ymlacio vs beid(i)o, and same with a few others I thought I heard maybe on the radio I can’t find now -except for the usual songs, where I hear pasio vs heib(i)o.
That made me wonder if it happens every time there’s an “eibio” or “eidio”! 
Could be, but I’ve certainly heard, for example, parco instead of parcio , and stopo instead of stopio con
Reading what you’ve said, I realised that Ive never consciously heard pasio - I think, but not sure, that I hear the english pass sometimes, in terms of giving a pass or things like “pass arbenning” etc in rugby. I expect people are saying it all the time, but I haven’t noticed it. Where have you come across it usually - Is it like passing the ball in football - where maybe cico could be used?. In rugby commentaries it’s generally mynd heibo or mynd trw(y) (o gwmpas etc) for going past, through (a gap) or around someone and generally dwlu (taflu) for throwing the ball. Rhoi or rho, seems to cover many other uses.
I am going to listen out for pasio now - it’s probably used a lot and i’ve just been oblivious to it.
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My Pronunciation Bible sometimes is a bit too noisy to hear words clearly 
(only problem I have, learning from songs!)
However I’m quite sure he says parcio, with the i!
It’s funny, there seem to be words I’ve noticed ane remembered since the first time, because they are somehow easy or familiar for me as an Italian - but they’re not necessarily commonly used or recognizable even to native speakers!
One example is olew olewydd. I heard it once by chance in cooking programme, and it just stuck. But nobody seem to have noticed it in Wales - even those who do use olive oil every day! My guess is that none of the countries it’s usually imported from bothers putting labels in Welsh, so 99% of the time people refer to it in English, or even Spanish or Italian and never think of it in Welsh.
But oh, what were we talking about? 
My main sources so far have been SSiW and Datblygu songs, so most of the words I’m able to detect easily at the moment come from one or the other (including olew, by the way!)
Pasio is one of the first words I noticed because it sounded exactly like we pronounce passione in Italian, among so many unfamiliar sounds.
That sentence was sai’n pasio unryw farn pal (passing a judgement, opinion)
But then again, among others, in a diffferent context/meaning Yn fy nrych welais ffwlcyn mewn siaced lledr a jeans wedi ei rhwygo yn tynnu allan, pasio heibio ar ei feic modur (passing as driving by - can’t remember the whole sentence right now!)
And then I heard it again on the radio and or TV, but can’t remember where!
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I have previously been told by a Welsh speaker who teaches, that whilst it is not a science, in the south the ‘loan verbs’ with ‘io’ on the end tend to be said as an ‘o’ or with a very short ‘i’ component in ‘io’…whilst the Welsh words that have ‘io’ in the end, do not… ie are pronounced with the full ‘io’ as you might expect.
It seems a surprisingly systematic thing to have evolved - even to be generally true (as opposed to always true).
Language is s funny thing!
Rich
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I’m a bit stuck on level 3 challenge 11
I understand that ‘mynedfa’ is entrance, but I can’t work out what is being said for ‘the entrance’.
It sounds to my ear like fy 'nedfa - which sounds to me like it ought to be ‘my entrance’.
So it must be an idiom - can someone write down how you are saying ‘the entrance’ and how it is said differently to ‘my entrance’. Thanks.
I hadn’t appreciated that there is a merging of words when using the definite article for things that begin with ‘m’ (if that’s what is happening) though y/yr mynedfa does sound like a bit of a mouthful…
Ah, that’s interesting!
It is indeed! 
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Mynedfa is a feminine noun, and feminine nouns soft mutate after the definite article, so whilst “an entrance” is “mynedfa”, “the entrance” is “y fynedfa” - (fynedfa sounds exactly like fy 'nedfa) and “my entrance” would be “fy mynedfa” - the word wouldn’t be shortened to 'nedfa.
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Ah-ha thank you. I did know that about single fem nouns but I completely forgot.
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I’m not sure of the exact definition of loan verb, but for what I may guess, pasio sounds more like one of those, than peidio. So it would be exactly the opposite of what I’m hearing, or I’m confused now? 
However, now that I opened the GPC I see that peidio can also be spelled peido - that might explain the difference, even though not for heibio.
Language is funny thing and a mess, I would add! 
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Yes it seems there are lots of different spellings for lots of words…just to keep you on your toes!
I did the southern course - like you I think … at the time it seemed to map pretty well onto what Iestyn was saying - as a rule of thumb anyway.
He said io… on heibio …and an ‘o’ on parcio…didn’t he? The trouble is that seems a long time ago now though and I’ve been listening to a lot of Northern things recently …so the audio recording in my head is not as clear as it used to be!
However if rules always have exceptions, I’m not sure what things that aren’t quite rules have!!! 
It’s a good excuse to say it however you darn well please to my mind - it doesn’t really seem that anyone can say it should be one way or the other!! 
Rich
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Yes, I did the Southern Course, but I think there’s now a conspiracy to lead us astray with the Advanced material and drag us all towards the Northern accent. 
Anyway I remember hearing heibo and beido in the challenges and then saw it was written heibio and beidio in the vocabulary, but didn’t ask until now (I still have a note from back then and just noticed it again cause I repeated lesson 25 a few days ago after a while).
[edit] I haven’t met parcio yet!
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I particularly appreciated the fact that, when Iestyn said heibo etc, Cat would say “heibio”. There as an important lesson there I think about variation in pronunciation even within the same family. That certainly applies to M and me.
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