Isabelle (far left), Leah (left), Eli (right) and me (far right)
So, here I am. Wil is the name and I am a linguist. Much of my work focuses on sociolinguistic and dialectical aspects of language change and variation among American English dialects. While my mainstay lays here, I find myself examining phonetic, phonological and morpho-syntactic phenomena that pique my interest for the many speech varieties I happen to run across in my meanderings (though, there's a special place in my heart for Michigan's U.P.). As a result, I often refer to myself as a socio-phonetician, and a sociolinguist more generally.
WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING?
- As of August 2015, I was hired as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Communciationn Sciences and Disorders Department at Grand Valley State University.
- Isabelle Rose Rankinen, on April 24th, 2015, was born. What a wonderful addition to the family!
(previous news)
- My article, ''The Michigan Upper Peninsual English Vowel System in Finnish American Communities in Marquette County'', has been published in American Speech, Vol. 89, No. 3, Fall 2014: 312-347.
- Start of the SocioLing Reading Group for the Fall 2014 semester (see website: http://www.ling.rochester.edu/wilrankinen/SocioLing/)
- Abstract accepted for poster presentation with co-author Aaron Albin, entitled "A 'pivot' model for extracting formant measurements based on vowel trajectory dynamics"; the 168th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (Indianapolis, Indiana; 10/27/2014- 10/31/2014). | Abstract | Prezi | PDF
- Hired as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY.
- Successful defense of "The Sociophonetic and Acoustic Vowel Dynamics of Michigan's Upper Peninsula English " (August 2014) | PDF