Demonstrates the importance of investigating language variation and change both within and across ethnic groups, especially those that have been relatively insular historically. Focus is on the variable patterning of /ay/ in the variety of English spoken by the Lumbee Indians in tri-ethic Robeson County, North Carolina. (Author/VWL)

Evidence from Warren County, North Carolina suggests a three-variant distinction for negative forms (i.e., wasn't, weren't, and won't). Throughout the history of sociological investigation, two types of variant have been noted: a sociolinguistic and a linguistic. In Warren County, "won't" functions as both types. (Author/VWL)

Using the case of a vernacular variety spoken on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, this article demonstrates how linguistic-systemic principles such as remorphologization, psycholinguistic principles of perceptual saliency, and sociolinguistic processes of symbolic identity converge to account for the development of leveling in this community.…