About me

Greetings! 

My name is Will, but it's short for William, and when I publish stuff I like to abbreviate it to Wm. and throw in the middle initial because abbreviated first names look cool (just ask Wm. E. Welmers). As far as I can tell, I am not genealogically related to Wm. H. Bennett, who was also a linguist. 

I currently live in Calgary, Alberta, but originally I'm from Boston, Massachusetts.  My family is not from there, so I'm not dialect-typical, but in some registers I do veer into non-rhoticity and merge 'cot' & 'caught' to open o; I also will not get confused if you refer to coke as tonic (provided you pronounce it with said open o). From previous time living in Grahamstown, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, I also started learning a completely different r-less variety of English, along with learning some Xhosa, and learning how to braai and make potjiekos [po̞͡ikiʲkɔs].

Like many other human people, my hair sometimes changes in length, which sometimes causes confusion. The picture above and left is the shorter end of the spectrum (photo credit: Rachel Walker). Middle left is around the median (photo credit: Akin Akinlabi). Bottom left is the longer end, which earned me acceptance into the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists (photo credit: Stephanie Shih).

Aside from linguistics, I enjoy ultimate frisbee, science, and aikido, even if I don't always have as much time to do them as I'd sometimes like.  I'm a really terrible photographer, but occasionally I get a half-decent shot of a landscape or critter, like the ones below.

And ndisazama kufunda ukuthetha isiXhosa, kodwa ndingasithetha kancinci qha. Ndicinga ndicothe.