def alphaOnly(x):
    if ignore_text_in_parentheses:
        x = re.sub('\\([^)]*\\)[;, ]*', '', x)
    if alphabet:
        x = ''.join((c for c in x.lower() if (c in alphabet)))
    return re.sub('^[@,;]*', '', x)
def alphaOnly(x):
    if ignore_text_in_parentheses:
        x = re.sub('\\([^)]*\\)[;, ]*', , x)
    if alphabet:
        x = .join((c for c in x.lower() if (c in alphabet)))
    return re.sub('^[@,;]*', , x)