LANGUAGE CHANGE IN "CONSERVATIVE" DIALECTS: THE CASE OF PAST TENSE BE IN SOUTHERN ENCLAVE COMMUNITIES

�� edge the potential for independent, internal linguistic change in such language varieties, the role of innovation tends to be overlooked in favor of the relic assumption, namely, that dialect forms in peripheral dialects will remain relatively static and resistant to language innovation. Indeed, Andersen (1988) maintains that this assumption has led researchers to slight the role of system-internal innovations in language in peripheral communities in favor of explanations grounded in hypothetical (and often unlikely or even impossible) contact situations resulting in the diffusion of change from outside areas. Andersen notes, there are internally motivated innovations which arise independently of any external stimulus. These too have an areal dimension and may appear to spread merely because they arise in different places at different times. [54] Andersen not only admits the potential of internally motivated change but asserts that peripheral varieties existing in closed, concentrated communities actually may show more dramatic changes than those occurring in more mainstream varieties, including “exorbitant phonetic developments” (70). In this study, we compare the trajectory of language change for a single morphosyntactic feature—past tense be leveling—in a set of representative enclave communities in the mid-Atlantic South to examine its path of change over the past century and the general role of innovation in peripheral dialect communities. Though enclave dialect situations have always