Panurge is one of the principal characters in Gargantua and Pantagruel, a series of five novels by François Rabelais (1483–1553). He is an exceedingly crafty knave, libertine, and coward, whose name was derived from the Greek word πανοῦργος (romanized as panóùrgos), meaning "knave, rogue".

Notable expressions of dismay made by Panurge during a tempest at sea:

Ughughbubbubughsh!
Augkukshw!
Bgshwogrbuh!
Abubububugh!
Bububbububbubu! boo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
Ubbubbughschwug!
Ubbubbugshwuplk!
ubbubbubbughshw
bubbubughshwtzrkagh!
Alas, alas! ubbubbubbugh! bobobobobo! bubububuss!
Ubbubbughsh! Grrrshwappughbrdub!
Bubububbugh! boo-hoo-hoo!
Ubbubbubbugh! Grrwh! Upchksvomitchbg!
Ububbubgrshlouwhftrz!
Ubbubbububugh! ugg! ugg!
Ubbubbubbugh! Boo-hoo-hoo!

Wordplay enthusiast Trip Payne wrote:

My personal favorite, however, is the incredible-sounding "Wagh, a-grups-grrshwahw!". Aside from its logological interest (eight consecutive consonants, albeit divided by a hyphen), the word simply does not sound anything like a wail could possibly sound. The ingenuity of Panurge to come up with such a fresh-sounding, imaginative exclamation — particularly under such pressure — is awe-inspiring.

All these expressions are from Jacques Leclercq's 1936 translation of Gargantua and Pantagruel.

Assignment

Among the 26 letters of the alphabet, we distinguish between vowels and consonants. The vowels are the five letters a, e, i, o, and u. The other letters are consonants. When determining whether a letter is a vowel or a consonant, no distinction is made between uppercase and lowercase letters.

Your task:

• Write a function isconsonant that takes a character $$c$$ (str). The function must return a Boolean value (bool) that indicates whether $$c$$ is a consonant.

• Write a function longest_sequence that takes a sentence $$s$$ (str). The function must return the length (int) of the longest sequence of one or more consecutive consonants in sentence $$s$$.

• Write a function highlight that takes a sentence $$s$$ (str). The function must return the sentence $$s$$ (str) in which all longest sequences of one ore more consecutive consonants are enclosed in square brackets. If sentence $$s$$ has multiple longest sequences of one or more consecutive consonants, each of them must be enclosed between square brackets separately.

Example

>>> isconsonant('s')
True
>>> isconsonant('X')
True
>>> isconsonant('e')
False
>>> isconsonant('!')
False

>>> longest_sequence('Wagh, a-grups-grrshwahw!')
6
>>> longest_sequence('Ughughbubbubughsh!')
4
>>> longest_sequence('Aiaiaiai!')
0
>>> longest_sequence('Ububbubgrshlouwhftrz!')
6
>>> longest_sequence('Honorificabilitudinatatibus!')
1

>>> highlight('Wagh, a-grups-grrshwahw!')
'Wagh, a-grups-[grrshw]ahw!'
>>> highlight('Ughughbubbubughsh!')
'Ughughbubbubu[ghsh]!'
>>> highlight('Aiaiaiai!')
'Aiaiaiai!'
>>> highlight('Ububbubgrshlouwhftrz!')
'Ububbu[bgrshl]ou[whftrz]!'
>>> highlight('Honorificabilitudinatatibus!')
'[H]o[n]o[r]i[f]i[c]a[b]i[l]i[t]u[d]i[n]a[t]a[t]i[b]u[s]!'

Resources

• Payne T (1989). "Alas, Alack!" revisited. Word Ways 22(1), 34–35.

• Walsh WS (1892). Handy-Book of Literary Curiosities.