Living my whole life in Arkansas in the United States, I’m certain that *if I were* is never used by locals. Instead, phrases like *if I was* and *you was* and *they was* have all replaced their equivalents in other regions. I’ve heard these so often that I think it’s necessary to ask if they are grammatically correct as a part of a southern dialect. Does their appearance in a certain region as acceptable excuse their application in formal writing? Personally, I indeed believe that anything not found in generic, “accent-free” areas should not be considered correct. But officially within a southern U.S. dialect, are these constructions grammatical?