Most questions that appear on the surviving lead tablets were posed by men; women and couples appear less often. The queries reveal a private world of anxiety that could only be assuaged by the gods. Marriage, children, hopeless love, debts, migration, troublesome relatives, sickness, professional advancement, absence; personal matters far outnumber political questions. Since the answer was usually a simple yes or no (or the name of a god), visitors had to phrase their question very carefully if they wanted a useful response. Most tablets were written in the Doric dialect spoken in the regions near Dodona, but there are also texts in the Attic-Ionic, Thessalian, and Boeotian dialects.