Phrase Explorer

What this shows

Phrases are adjacent, ordered spellings within a verse. Bigrams have two words and trigrams three. Totals count occurrences, including repetitions. Two-word phrases need at least 5 occurrences; three-word phrases need at least 3. Collocates, by contrast, can occur anywhere in the same verse.

Estonian-side and Finnish-side counts

Counts use the site's Estonian-side and Finnish-side classification of songs in SKVR, JR, KR and ERAB, based on poem identifiers and documented language overrides. The Finnish side also includes Karelian and Ingrian songs. Archive membership is a separate matter. Both sides means a phrase has occurrences on each side; it does not mean that the phrase mixes languages.

Phrase types

Alliteration means every word starts with the same letter. A refrain contains a word tagged as a refrain word in at least 50% of at least 3 commentary annotations; this tag takes priority over alliteration. The alliteration filter checks initial letters, including in refrains.

Maps and variants

Maps count distinct songs containing the word or phrase, once per parish, rather than repetitions. Circle size follows the number of songs and reflects collecting intensity. Popups give the parish's total recorded songs for context. Comparison maps keep each word's counts separate; concentric circles mark parishes with both words.

Variants show, for each word of a two-word phrase, the other words that stand in its place among all kept two-word phrases, including refrains. Phrases occurring fewer than 5 times are not listed. The link under each list opens the Substitutions page, which counts nearly identical verses in different songs that differ only in that word.

Keyboard actions

Outside text fields and menus: / focuses search; ? toggles Help; 1, 2 and 3 open the two-word, three-word and refrain lists; A toggles alliteration; S copies the address; E or X exports the word panel or current list; C toggles comparison; R picks a random word; G toggles the selected phrase's map, otherwise the word map, or the comparison map in compare mode; F toggles the variants of the selected two-word phrase.

Escape closes Help first, then autocomplete, then compare mode; otherwise it clears the search when the search box is focused. In search, arrow keys move through suggestions and Enter selects a suggestion or searches the typed word. Enter in either comparison box runs the comparison.