Hi RB

The Appalachian folk were culturally/geographically relatively isolated for a long time after they moved into those mountains within a generation or two of leaving the Isles.

Folks didn't just move into the mountains and "stay there" for 300 years really. I think how it worked is that excess mountain population on each generation would keep moving west, so the folks who didn't keep moving west mostly did remain in place. After frontiers opened up past the Appalachians, there were easier ways to get there than straight thru forested mountains with minimal roads.

There is a beautiful place in TN, Cades Cove, that was settled real early, but within a couple of generations most of the folk had moved on, and when it was turned into a Park preserve, the population was mainly a few old farmers.

http://www.cadescove.net/auto_tour.html

One "probability zero" thing I've wondered about-- If the songs have been preserved so accurately, then what about the dialect?

Perhaps Shakespeare spoke like Jed Clampett and young Queen Elizabeth sounded like Elly Mae? <g>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beverly_Hillbillies

James Chandler Jr
http://www.errnum.com/