Wednesday 25 July 2007

A comment from Verity got me thinking about which characters make which animal sounds when they talk. (Yes, it is a bad habit of mine.) The computer scientist in me could not resist analyzing the data, so here it is in all its unformatted glory for those of you who might be curious about such things.

Methodology

I simply counted up the number of times the text “[…] growled” appeared to see who growled the most. I also discarded a few “and growleds” since they aren’t very interesting.

Results

Of course, all of the “he growled” phrases could not be assigned to their growlers, but on the other hand, having all the “he growleds” counted separately readily shows that men growl far more often than women in my story. In fact, Egelric alone growls more than all the women of Lothere combined! :-D

I also checked out our top roarers, snarlers, hissers, squeakers, peepers, and purrers. Surprisingly – or perhaps not – Leofric beat out Egelric in the roaring competition.

Also, it is quite clear that men growl, roar, and snarl more often than women, but women are more likely to hiss than men. And women and children do the majority of the peeping, cheeping, and squeaking.

Women do seem to purr more than men, but strangely the top three named purrers are Imin, Dre, and Dantalion!

Appendix One — Data

Growled

81he
34Egelric
23she
16Lar
10Sigefrith
7Leofric
6Malcolm
6Colban
5Myrddin
4father
4Vash
4elf
3Dunstan
3Imin
3Llen
3Theobald
2Eadwyn
2Cynewulf
2Gunnilda
2man
2Brinstan
2Abbot
2voice
2Eirik
2Leia
1Cian
1priest
1Conrad
1Ethelwyn
1Raedwald
1girl
1brother
1Iylaine
1Matilda
1Dantalion
1Osh
1Pol
1Brede
1Papa
1Gils
1Kiv
1Lasrua
1Bertie
1Wulsy
1Aylmer
1Anson
1boy
1Surr
1Llosh
1Wulf
1they

Roared

30he
6Leofric
6Brandt
4Sigefrith
4Egelric
3Theobald
2Lar
2Colban
2Brede
2father
1Alwy
1Eirik
1man
1Pol
1Cenwulf
1Aengus
1cousin

Snarled

27he
14she
6Egelric
5Malcolm
4Myrddin
3Leofric
3Lar
3Maire
3elf
2Flann
2Vash
2Theobald
2Sigefrith
1Raedwald
1girl
1Emma
1Paul
1Llen
1Kiv
1Brede
1Bertie
1Alred
1Dunstan
1Colban
1man
1Leia
1creature
1Imin
1Surr

Hissed

54she
32he
4Malcolm
4Eadgith
3Brede
2Sigefrith
2Estrid
2Baron
2father
2Lar
2Vash
1Osh
1Caedwulf
1Gunnilda
1Yware
1people
1She
1Cat
1Eirik
1Wynflaed
1Myrddin
1gasp
1Dantalion
1Selwyn
1Lasrua
1sister
1Flann
1Lili
1Olaf
1Lena
1Maud
1Araphel
1son
1Egelric
1Leofric

Squeaked

45she
13he
3Yware
3Catan
2snow
2Sigefrith
2Brede
1Eadgith
1door
1Caedwulf
1Myrddin
1Ralf
1who
1Nush
1Astrid
1Gytha
1girl
1Wynna
1guard
1Mouse
1Malcolm
1Selwyn
1Synne
1Vash
1Imin
1Gwynn
1Estrid
1Iylaine
1Dunstan
1Cynewulf
1Lena
1Wulf

Peeped or Cheeped

2Hetty
1voice
1Eithne
1she
1Cynewulf
1Cubby
1Gils

Purred

14she
3Imin
2Dre
2She
2Dantalion
1Sophie
1Lili
1elf
1Queen
1he
1it
1Ana

Appendix Two — A Little Something Cute

Seven.