I'm a proud Midwesterner; I was born in Indiana and grew up in Minnesota. Probably the most linguistically-interesting aspect of my dialect is my Canadian raising, which applies only to /aj/ but can be encountered in unexpected locations ("spider", "tiger", "hire").
I do have interests that fall outside of academia. I'm an amateur genealogist. Among other findings, I'm a direct descendent of Thomas Mayhew, whose vowels Bill Labov once speculated about. I also enjoy writing, reading, and playing any computer game made by Maxis and Paradox Interactive, as well as strategy board games. I avidly follow politics, and am a big fan of Canada. I consider myself an urbanist and love a good transit system. I've been using the MetGo app to get around Buffalo sometimes. I'm both a county collector and a capitol collector.
© 2010-2023 Chris Heffner; Updated 2023-12-07