Tongue and Talk: The Dialect Poets - Yorkshire

Poet Daljit Nagra revisits the BBC's poetry archive and selects Tongue and Talk: The Dialect Poets - Yorkshire.

Katie Edwards examines place and identity in her native county.

Ever since she found herself mocked in academic circles for her broad South Yorkshire accent, Katie's made it her mission to celebrate her linguistic heritage.

She travels round what was historically England's largest county discovering a huge range of dialect and dialect poetry.

She meets with members of the Yorkshire Dialect Society, hears how dialect has evolved in different parts of Yorkshire, finds out what's been lost down the years and discovers a fresh passion for using Yorkshire dialect among several young poets in the region.

From Ilkley Moor Bah Tat (Yorkshire's unofficial national anthem) via the industry and land that spawned much of the dialect, to poets using it as part of various types of social activism, Katie gets a real sense of a county in which dialect is still very much an important part of identity.

Producer: Iain Mackness

A Made in Manchester production for BBC Radio 4, first broadcast in 2019.