Often enough changes in a song or a tune that has been passed on by someone from memory may result in "diminution and dilution of the lyric creativity of the songwriters". But sometimes it works the other way. And that is how "the folk process" works.

After all, the same thing happens when someone sings their own songs, even without knowing it - the edges get chipped off, the superfluous verses get forgotten, the words that trip you up will be replaced.

To quote Sydney Carter once again: "Having made a song, you sing it; but writing it is another matter. Particularly if, like me, you seldom sing it the same way twice; fresh possibilities will keep appearing. You change a word, you bend a note; did it work or didn't it? What you put down, in the end, is nothing but a variant."