BIRTHSTONE, DUMBSTRUCK & NIGHTCLUB – In each of these words (and many others) there are 5 consonants in a row.

What is the shortest word with this feature?

What is the longest such word having only one vowel?

What is the longest such word with only one certain vowel, repeats allowed?

Q1.
The shortest word in the English-language with the given feature is, perhaps, shared with the three five-letter words CRWTH (a Celtic string instrument), GRRRL (a young woman regarded as independent and strong or aggressive) and PHPHT (an interjection used to express mild annoyance or disagreement). 

[Six six-letter words have the given feature of five consonants in a row: ANGSTS, CRWTHS, GRRRLS, ILLTHS, (conditions of poverty or misery), SHTCHI (a Russian cabbage soup) and TSKTSK. (In the words crwth and its plural, crwths, the consonant 'W' is used to represent the close or near-close back rounded vowel sound. There is no vowel letter or vowel sound in either the obstruent articulated tsktsk or the voiceless labiodental fricative with dental stop phpht. GRRRL and GRRRLS do contain the rhotic vowel sound, yet the rhotic letter R is considered a consonant letter).]

Q2.
The longest word in the English-language with the given feature and having only one vowel letter may be shared with the two nine-letter words STRENGTHS and TSKTSKING.

Q3.
The longest word in the English-language with the given feature with one vowel letter that may occur more than once in the word is the eighteen-letter word STRENGTHLESSNESSES, followed by the sixteen-letter STRENGTHLESSNESS, and then by the thirteen-letter word WELTSCHMERZES, the English plural of weltschmerz, a German loanword defined as the feeling of sorrow while accepting it as a necessary portion to one's existence.

(BORSCHTS, CRWTHS, GRRRLS, LENGTHSMEN, NACHSCHLAG, NACHSCHLAGS, TSKTSK, TSKTSKED, TSKTSKING, TSKTSKS, WATCHSTRAP, WATCHSTRAPS, WELTSCHMERZ, and WELTSCHMERZES share a distinction of having 6 consonants in a row and at most one vowel (which may occur any number of times in the word). TSKTSKS has the distinction of having 7 consonants in a row.)

[Other English words may exist of length, yet I am limited in my word lists and lexicons].

It should be noted that the letter 'Y' is assumed to be considered  a vowel letter for all questions in this problem. The letter is often considered both a vowel and consonant. Also, words that are considered simply as elongations such as BRRRR, GRRRR, HMMMM, MMHMM, SHHHH, and ZZZZZ are also omitted.

Edited on August 8, 2015, 12:23 am

Posted by Dej Mar on 2015-08-05 13:06:39