I am currently going through the episodes of ‘Now You’re Talking’ Welsh on Youtube and in episode 5 they state that ‘Wi’n hoffi’ is used in South Wales for ‘I like’, and that ‘Dwi’n hoffi’ is used in the north. They say that the ‘d’ is often dropped in Southern Welsh.
However in the SSI Welsh courses, the southern course teaches ‘Dwi’n hoffi’, i.e. with the ‘d’, so I’m wondering which is correct for what region, or does it not make much difference? I thought ‘licio’ was more likely to be used in the North?
How much is the ‘d’ of ‘dwi’n’ dropped in Southern Welsh, is it just for ‘hoffi’ or for all verbs, and is it just for the spoken language or the written language too?
The dropping of the D is generally more common in the South, but that’s not to say that it’s not used - it’s very much a preference thing, as they are both correct (and no, it doesn’t matter which verb it goes with… wi’n moyn, wi’n mynd, wi’n edrych, etc).
Licio is generally more common in the North, but again, not exclusive - some people will say hoffi up here and some people will say licio down there!
It’s more a spoken difference than a written one (with the exception of quoted dialogue), but people will write it if they’re writing informally e.g. on social media etc.
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Just my very anecdotal observations, but Now You’re Talking is almost 30 years old now, and it does seem to me that with the resurgence that Welsh has enjoyed recently, the programme is a little out of date as far as usage goes.
Not that I’m saying it is in this case, just something I’ve noticed from watching about 10 episodes. It doesn’t seem to always reflect the Welsh I see and hear, but then maybe that’s a regional thing.
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Yes, it was - as I understand it - using the ‘standardised’ form of Welsh that was rolled out for learners back then, but unfortunately it’s not the natural Welsh you hear everyday by a long way (but fair play to the cast for modifying their own natural speech patterns so well!)
Yeah, ‘Now You’re Talking’ was made in 1990 - hard to believe that was 30 years ago! I think the core of the language is still pretty much the the same, but perhaps they had to generalise a bit to distinguish between northern/southern Welsh. I also noticed they used ‘nac oes’ as a response to ‘oes…gyda chi’ (and they say the ‘gy’ is often dropped in everyday speech), whereas in the SSI Welsh southern course it’s ‘nag oes’.
From watching more of the episodes of ‘Now You’re Talking’, it seems that one main difference between southern and northern Welsh is the ‘yw’ vs ‘ydy’ for questions etc. I feel the programme is helping me consolidate the Welsh that I learned with the ‘SSI’ courses, and is also helping me understand the key differences between southern and northern Welsh.
Also, do people still use ‘os gwelwch chi’n dda’ for ‘please’ these days?
Definitely in more formal situations or where you’re being extra polite, but you hear “plîs” a lot too 
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