In many rural English-speaking communities, like the U.S. Appalachian region, linguistic processes like paradigm leveling collide with social processes of standardization. A quantitative sociolinguistic study evaluated the status of past be amid native Appalachian speakers in the light of economic and educational advances over the 20th century. The findings point out that leveled was decreased sharply, with the youngest speakers showing more standardized patterns. Still the level of was contraction (e.g., We's there last night) grew, providing native Appalachians a reduced variant to oppose the social urge towards a completely standardized system.