Words with the most consecutive consonants
Philip Sherman
js0...@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Wonko the Sane) wrote:
>
> In <Cnq2u...@freenet.carleton.ca> ar...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Gabriel Duong) writes:
>
>
>
> >Find all the words in the English language that have the MOST CONSECUTIVE
> >consonants. For example, the word "length" has 4 consecutive consonants.
> >The plural of the word doesn't count.
> >To get started, here's a word that has 5 consecutive consonants :
> >WALKTHROUGH.
> >Can you do better. The more consonants, the better. The more words, the more fun. Good luck.
>
> Latchstring. 6. :)
>
You could try lengthy, if you don't consider y a vowel. But if you don't
consider y a vowel, then you could use "rhythmic" which also has six. Or
rhythmless or non-rhythmic,in that case, have 7.
Philip Sherman (aka Pokey)
pshe...@cc.swarthmore.edu
____ _
| _ \ ___ | | _ ___ __ __
| |_) | / _ \ | |/ / / _ \ \ \/ /
| __/ | (_) || < < __/ \ /
|_| \___/ |_|\_\ \___| / /
/_/
--- The only thing slow about Pokey is the name - Gumby
Gabriel Duong
Wonko the Sane
Latchstring. 6. :)
Jeremy
P.S. The German word "angstschweiss" has 8, and the Georgian word
"gvprtskvnis" has 9. Also, there was a guy on the 1992 USA Olympic
volleyball team named Bob Ctvrtlik (stuh-VERT-lick), which has 6.
--
* Jeremy A. Smith "42!" --Douglas Adams *
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RVES...@vma.cc.nd.edu
pshe...@cc.swarthmore.edu (Philip Sherman) says:
>
> You could try lengthy, if you don't consider y a vowel. But if you don't
>consider y a vowel, then you could use "rhythmic" which also has six. Or
>rhythmless or non-rhythmic,in that case, have 7.
you cannot just wake up and say, "today i think i'll consider y a consonant".
in any given word, y is either definitely a consonant or definitely a vowel,
depending on the word. in all words that you suggest above, it is a vowel.
bob vesterman.
Chris Cole
This question is in the rec.puzzles archive:
==> language/english/spelling/single.words.p <==
What words have exceptional lengths, patterns, etc.?
==> language/english/spelling/single.words.s <==
[snip snip]
Consonants
longest consonant string bergschrund bergschrunds catchphrase catchphrases eschscholtzia eschscholtzias festschrift festschriften festschrifts goldschmidtine ... (6,27)
[snip snip]
Omitting plurals, the complete list of words from Webster's Third is:
bergschrund
catchphrase
eschscholtzia
festschrift
goldschmidtine
goldschmidtite
lachsschinken
latchstring
mischsprache
nachschlag
promptscript
weltschmerz
********************************************
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Mark Meyer
If we're going to mention foreign languages, how about the
Czech tongue-twister
Strch prst skrz krk. (sp?)
Ref: Guinness Book of World Records, years ago.
--
Mark Meyer | mme...@dseg.ti.com |
Texas Instruments, Inc., Plano, TX +--------------------+
Every day, Jerry Junkins is grateful that I don't speak for TI.
"Are you kidding? Your man has a camera. My man has a flamethrower."
TM
: Find all the words in the English language that have the MOST CONSECUTIVE
I can do not better, but same. 'syndrome'
Don't listen to those idiots who say that 'y' is a vowel. They're losers.
David Rysdam
As a matter of fact, I hear tell that even 'w' can be a vowel. As
in "how". But I am not a linguist (or whatever).
-- David Rysdam's .sig of the day is:
A real person has two reasons for doing anything ... a good reason and
the real reason.
Philip Sherman
wrote:
WELL IN THAT CASE, Y ask Y?
I will stick with nonrhythmic HEHEHEHE
(even if y is a vowel, it looks cool)
Philip Sherman (aka Pokey)
David Rysdam
drys...@ursa.calvin.edu (David Rysdam) speculated:
> I can do not better, but same. 'syndrome'
> Don't listen to those idiots who say that 'y' is a vowel. They're losers.
NO I DID NOT!!!!!
Noam Elkies
Well there's "polyrhythms" with 9, if you count y as a consonant.
Yes, it's a real word -- ask a music student in an advanced
ear-training class. But this is bogus, because your ear will
tell you that in this word both y's are clearly acting as vowels.
--Noam D. Elkies (elk...@zariski.harvard.edu)
Dept. of Mathematics, Harvard University
Hume Smith
As a matter of fact, I hear tell that even 'w' can be a vowel. As
in "how". But I am not a linguist (or whatever).
i didn't know the w in "how" was a vowel. but the one in "cwm" is.
(we do, after all, call it a "double u".)
(it gets great attention pronouncing X window manager names - twm, tvtwm,
olwm, NCDwm, mwm...)
Neil St.Laurent
synchronous 6
Imagination's End imag...@twisted.uu.holonet.net
Twisted (403)854-3568 [#############################]
David Rysdam
In article <DRYSDA02.9...@ursa.calvin.edu> drys...@ursa.calvin.edu (David Rysdam) writes:
As a matter of fact, I hear tell that even 'w' can be a vowel. As
in "how". But I am not a linguist (or whatever).
i didn't know the w in "how" was a vowel. but the one in "cwm" is.
(we do, after all, call it a "double u".)
Cwm! That's the word I was trying to think of. "A mountain hollow", is
it not? In any case, yes, I believe that 'w' is a vowel in "how".
(it gets great attention pronouncing X window manager names - twm, tvtwm,
olwm, NCDwm, mwm...)
How would it help with NCDwm? Nickduhoom?
-- David Rysdam's .sig of the day is:
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged
demo.
RVES...@vma.cc.nd.edu
(Hume Smith) says:
>
>In article <DRYSDA02.9...@ursa.calvin.edu> drys...@ursa.calvin.edu
>(David Rysdam) writes:
>
> As a matter of fact, I hear tell that even 'w' can be a vowel. As
> in "how". But I am not a linguist (or whatever).
>
>i didn't know the w in "how" was a vowel. but the one in "cwm" is.
>(we do, after all, call it a "double u".)
though there are a few evil mutant words like "cwm" and "crwd" wherein
"w" is the vowel sound "oo", the rule "a,e,i,o,u, sometimes y and w"
(which is often shortened to "a,e,i,o,u, sometimes y") in fact is
refering to nice friendly words like "how". the "ow" sound is a dipthong...
two vowels slid together. it is easier to see that "w" is a vowel here
if you realize that you pronounce "how" the same way you would pronounce
"hau" - you're sliding "ah" and "oo" together.
it is certainly not a consonant there - you don't say "ha-woo" or anything
like that.
bob vesterman.
Brad Templeton
"Sly gypsy nymphs tryst shyly by my crypt"
would have a rather interesting property.
--
Brad Templeton, ClariNet Communications Corp. -- San Jose, CA 408/296-0366
bl...@gpx01.d39.lilly.com
> i didn't know the w in "how" was a vowel. but the one in "cwm" is.
> (we do, after all, call it a "double u".)
>
A better example of 'w' beign used as a vowel is the word 'few'. That 'yoo'
sound at the end of the word comes from the 'w', not from the 'e'. At least,
that's the way I learned it, but I have learned a lot of wrong things in my
life, so...
Dingbat
imag...@twisted.uu.holonet.net (Neil St.Laurent) writes:
> Most consecutive consonants, counting y as a consonant.
>
> synchronous 6
How about syzygy?
Although, of course y is a vowel here...
Dingbat
E-mail:--> din...@original.demon.co.uk
Chris Best
> >
> > synchronous 6
----------
Why don't we just count O and U as consonants, too? Then it's 11!
PH
>Y is a vowel, otherwise the sentence
>
> "Sly gypsy nymphs tryst shyly by my crypt"
>
>would have a rather interesting property.
Er, I was always taught that Y was a consonant. A E I O U are the vowels.
PH
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Derek Holt
>In article <Cntv1...@clarinet.com>, Brad Templeton <br...@clarinet.com> wrote:
> >Y is a vowel, otherwise the sentence
> >
> > "Sly gypsy nymphs tryst shyly by my crypt"
> >
> >would have a rather interesting property.
>
>Er, I was always taught that Y was a consonant. A E I O U are the vowels.
>
Well, I was taught that 'y' is sometimes a vowel and sometimes a consonant,
(it is a vowel in the words by, my, sty, cry, etc., and a consonant in
you, yes, etc. I expect that was too complicated for your teachers.
I am not sure how to judge day, buy, etc.
I just checked the shorter OED:
Vowel: A speech sound produced by vibration of the vocal cords but without
any closure or narrowing of the speech tract such as would cause audible
friction; capable of forming a syllable; a letter of the alphabet
representing such a sound.
I expect that was too complicated for my teachers.
Derek Holt.
Cho Wee Bin Jeffrey
: Most consecutive consonants, counting y as a consonant.
: synchronous 6
: Imagination's End imag...@twisted.uu.holonet.net
: Twisted (403)854-3568 [#############################]
How about "rhythms"? (7 consonants and no vowels!)
Philip Karl Roban
I'd be interested if anyone could find a neat formula for
this one! (I'm not making this up.)
More terms available on request.
If you know where this comes from, don't make
it hard for everyone by saying what it is.
I think that, out of context, it may actually be easier,
so don't blow it!
Philip K. Roban
Daniel LOEB
|> How about this interesting sequence?
|> I'd be interested if anyone could find a neat formula for
|> this one! (I'm not making this up.)
(THIS SHOULD PROBABLY GO IN THE FAQ)
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From: sequenc...@research.att.com
Date: Thu, 14 Apr 94 04:58 EDT
To: lo...@labri.u-bordeaux.fr
Greetings from
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Result of looking up 1 1 1 2 3 5 9 18 35 75 159 355 802 1858 :
%I A0602 N0267
%S A0602 1,1,1,1,2,3,5,9,18,35,75,159,355,802,1858,4347,10359,24894,60523,148284,
%T A0602 366319,910726,2278658,5731580,14490245,36797588,93839412,240215803,617105614
%N A0602 Quartic trees with $n$ nodes.
%R A0602 JACS 55 680 33. BS65 201. TET 32 356 76. BA76 28. LeMi91.
%O A0602 0,5
%C A0602 njas
References (if any):
[BA76] = A. T. Balaban, Chemical Applications of Graph Theory , Academic Press, NY, 1976.
[BS65] = R. G. Busacker and T. L. Saaty, Finite Graphs and Networks , McGraw-Hill, NY, 1965.
[JACS] = Journal of the American Chemical Society .
[LeMi91] = P. Leroux and B. Miloudi, Ge'ne'ralisations de la formule d'Otter, Annales des Sciences mathe'matiques du Que'bec, vol. 16(1), pp. 53-80, 1992.
[TET] = Tetrahedron .
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Magdala
: In article <850347S.94...@dragon.acadiau.ca>, 850...@dragon.acadiau.ca
Thank you for some linguistic reason!
In most languages (except English) "i" is regularly pronounced as it is in
"Machine". "Y" then becomes the consonant variation on that sound. For
instance, if your language **has** to have a consonant between two vowels,
you'll pay attention to the middle sound in "ia" (eg ending "Maria") --
there's the actual "i" sound, a new sound, then the "a" sound -- and spell
it "iya". In those languages, "y" is always a consonant, "i" is always used
for the vowel equivalent. (In English spelling, of course, anything goes!)
Also, "u" and "w" (or "uu" as it actually is written out and named) have the
same relationship. In "Follower", it's being a consonant that separates two
vowels. In "how," as noted, it's being a vowel -- compare "hob", where the
final letter isn't converting the "o" (or "a" in other languages) to a
diphthong.
In other words, in most languages using our alphabet, the teachers who omit
"y" and "w" would be entirely correct. But since English is so hobbledy-
gobbledy, they err if they leave them out.
: bob vesterman.
--
,_ _ * * _ <<Life is what happens to you when
/ / / __. _, *__/ __. // __. you're making other plans.
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