Dear LINGUIST List Subscribers,

We did it. YOU did it. We've reached our goal! Overnight,
while our valiant crew were bracing themselves for one final
push, the LINGUIST List Advisors swooped in and donated the
remaining amount to end Fund Drive!

It's been a long journey, full of epic heroism, head-to-head
competition among the graduate schools and subfields,
delightful limericks, and astounding support from LINGUIST
readers worldwide. We truly believe this has been the most
successful Fund Drive ever, and we can't thank you enough for
making it happen. Thanks to your donations, LINGUIST can
continue for another year to provide indispensable services
and information-- at no cost to you or to the discipline.

We've got some very important announcements to wrap up Fund
Drive 2012:

1. Graduate Tournament Winners!

The University of Washington is the winner of the First
Annual Golden Pig Award! With a mind-boggling $4205 in
donations, U. Washington will be receiving a plaque
proclaiming their victory for all to see. Congratulations,
University of Washington, and thank you for your support!

We'd also like to celebrate the winning schools for each
region:

North-West University (Africa)
University of Toronto (Americas without US)
Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (Asia)
University of Cambridge (Europe)
Bar-Ilan University (Middle East)
University of Melbourne (Pacific)
University of South Carolina (US East)

Thanks to all of the schools worldwide who supported us!
We salute you!

The School Spirit Award for highest number of donors also
technically goes to University of Washington, with 50 donors.
We commend Washington for their amazing achievement! We'd
like to spread out the glory a little bit, though, and
acknowledge another university that was close behind, with
34 donors and a heaping helping of competitive spirit: the
University of South Carolina! USC will receive the School
Spirit plaque, and our applause for their tenacity and
generosity!

To view the rankings for each region, visit the Graduate
Tournament page:
http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2012/graduate-tournament.cfm



2. Battle of the Fields Winner!

This year's Subfield Challenge was a roller-coaster ride.
Roger Shuy's sociolinguistics challenge during Week 3 of
Fund Drive catapulted sociolinguistics to the top. Some
time thereafter, Syntax regained their lead and maintained
it for several weeks. Just when we thought Syntax would
win, sociolinguistics pulled ahead in the final hours of
Fund Drive, snatching victory with a $293 lead!
Congratulations, sociolinguists-- you are the champions of
the Battle of the Fields, with an amazing total of $9316 in
donations! Bragging rights are hereby conferred for the
duration of 2012.

We'd also like to applaud Computational Linguistics and
Semantics, both of which broke the $5000 mark-- way to go!

The top 5 subfields were:

-Sociolinguistics, $9316
-Syntax, $9023
-Computational Linguistics, $6050
-Semantics, $5769
-Phonology, $ 4742

To see the complete rankings, visit the Battle of the Fields:
http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2012/battle-of-the-fields.cfm


3. Linguists of the Day!

We'd like to thank all of the linguists who contributed their
tales to the Hall of Heroes; we certainly enjoyed reading
them, as we're sure you did! Thanks to Francois Grosjean,
Nikolaus Himmelmann, Emily Bender, Mamoru Saito, Jean Berko
Gleason, Martin Haspelmath, and Angelika Kratzer! If you
missed any of their stories, visit the Hall of Heroes:

http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2012/hall-of-heroes.cfm


4. Other champions!

We'd like to once more congratulate Brenda Boerger, Ultimate
2012 Limerick Contest Champion-- congratulations, Brenda!
We'd also like to congratulate the other finalists, Elaine
May Smith and Graham Shorrocks. Well done! And thanks to
everyone who submitted limericks; you can see every work
of poetic genius we received at the Limerick Museum:

http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2012/limerick-museum.cfm

We'd also like to congratulate Daniel Hall and Pam and Allen
Munro, winners of the Bard's Ballad Challenge and stars of
an epic song by LINGUIST Bard Justin Petro; you can read
the ballad describing their heroism at the end of Chapter 3
of the LingQuest Saga:

http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2012/chapter-three.cfm

Last but not least, we've still got some raffle winners to
announce-- keep an eye out for the final round of lucky
Prize of the Day recipients!


5. The LingQuest Saga Finale!

Never fear, dear readers; we won't let the LingQuest Saga
end on a cliffhanger. We wouldn't dream of denying you
closure in such a callous manner. The grand finale of the
Saga will be published tomorrow, in which our heroes do
their very best to save the world from the dark forces which
plague Panglossia. If you haven't yet caught up on the
Saga, all the chapters are available online:

http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2012/saga.cfm


We'd like to tell you in closing that while this Fund Drive
(like all fund drives) has been challenging, tough, and at
times exhausting, it's also been a lot of fun for us. We
did our very best to put the "fun" in Fund Drive for our
subscribers, and hope you enjoyed some of our humble
amusements.

Most of all, we want to thank everyone who donated. Every
dollar helped, and whether you contributed $5 or $500, we
extend our heartfelt gratitude. LINGUIST List is dedicated
to freely providing information and services to the
linguistic community, and it's through your support that
we're able to do it. Thank you, thank you, thank you for
keeping this resource free to everyone worldwide.

With gratitude, appreciation, and certainly relief,
The LINGUIST List Crew and Advisors