One of the questions often asked by Welsh learners (and I remember asking it myself on more than one occasion) is where is the dividing line between the Northern and Southern dialects of Welsh. This as you can imagine is a difficult question to answer, but one nevertheless that the television series 'Ar Lafar' went about trying to answer this week. 'Ar Lafar' (meaning the spoken language) has been looking at regional dialects, which number of course many more than two. Pennod 2 looks partly at the Ceredigion dialect, as well as the 'North and South' question, it's well worth watching ond S4Clic (remember English and Welsh subtitles are available).
If you havn't got time to watch, the simplest answer is that broadly speaking the 'transition zone' starts as far South as Aberaeron and reaches almost as far North as Corris, giving a notional border around the Dyfi estuary. This is broadly what you might expect, as in Machynlleth the Welsh has Northern charecteristics, though by the time you reach Aberystwyth (and manage to hear Ceredigion Welsh amongst the tourists and students!) the Southern patterns rule. Its interesting to hear somebody from South Ceredigion say that 'Maen nhw'n siarad yn eitha ogleddol yn Aberystwyth' (they speak rather 'northish' in Aberystwyth), so I suppose it's all relative.
