It's impossible to please all the people all the time and it's impossible to genuinely reflect language changes when a song can be anything between 200 years and 200 days old.

Pronounciation, like all language, changes over the years, and across dialects. I could write a song about Puncknowle and you'd all sing it as Punk Noel... when really it's Punnel. Same as I first saw Belvoir and thought it was Bell Vwore, rather than Beaver. Half the inhabitants of Shrewsbury don't know whether it's Shrews bury or Shroes berry.....

As Malcolm, I also agree about singing songs in imitation accents, I don't like it and I try not to do it. Trouble is, I've got one song that just does it on it's own!

As an aside - I'm a Dorset person, born and bred, family been there for at least 250 years - I sang 'Linden Lea' by Dorset poet William Barnes, in dialect at one club and got told in no uncertain terms that I was doing a silly accent and should stop it!

It doesn't matter how or what you sing, it's going to annoy someone somewhere, so the best thing to do is do your best and please yourself. If you are pleased with your performance and happy with your material, then no-one else really matters.

LTS