"I have problems with some dialect songs: I know and understand and can speak my local dialect, but have never habitually used it"

I tend to agree with Sue. When I sing East Riding songs, including those I've written, I tend to use an East Riding accent, as it is used today. The traditional accent, especially from oop in t' Wooalds, is so strong as to be unfathomable to most people nowadays. In fact, my grandfather (who spoke it) used to tell me that, before the war, some Danes came to East Yorkshire and could understand and communicate with the locals because the vocabulary was so similar.

Incidentally, has anyone noticed that John Jones of Oysterband, although he doesn't speak with one, sings with a pronounced lisp (or should that be pronounced lithp?).