RFI: longest one-syllable English word?

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"Scripts" is fairly long, but I know that's not it.

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 15 January 2004 05:02 (twenty-two years ago)

i'm talking from a linguistics (IPA) point of view so consider any double vowels as one letter and 'th' 'sh' 'ch' etc. as one letter too.

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 15 January 2004 05:04 (twenty-two years ago)

straight

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 15 January 2004 05:04 (twenty-two years ago)

google says "screeched"

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 15 January 2004 05:05 (twenty-two years ago)

so "flaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" is out then.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 15 January 2004 05:07 (twenty-two years ago)

straights

but the 'gh' is silent, so that's just like 6 letters in the phonetic alphabet 'scripts' is 7.

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 15 January 2004 05:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Like 'straights', 'screeched' is only 6 too

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 15 January 2004 05:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it has to be CCCVCCCC with the last C as 's'
(C= consonant sound, and V= vowel sound)

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 15 January 2004 05:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Side question: can English have four consonant sounds in a row?

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 15 January 2004 05:12 (twenty-two years ago)

from looking at this page I'm think there's not any CCCCs:
http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutwords/onesyllable?view=uk

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 15 January 2004 05:19 (twenty-two years ago)

"Sixths" is CVCCCC. I don't know that there are any CCCVCCCCs, though.

― kieran, Thursday, 15 January 2004 05:24 (twenty-two years ago)

haha, a nairn = diphthong.

― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 15 January 2004 05:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah it is, but I usually Americanize it, and pronounce it with two syllables.

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 15 January 2004 05:33 (twenty-two years ago)

HOTTTTTTTT

― Le Coq (DarrenK), Thursday, 15 January 2004 05:48 (twenty-two years ago)

strengths = 9 letters and 5 consonents (cccvccccc)

― oscillatingocelot, Thursday, 15 January 2004 06:04 (twenty-two years ago)

4 consonants in a row surely is "rhythms"? Unless you're a pansy and argue that "y" is a vowel.

― Leee Majors (Leee), Thursday, 15 January 2004 06:58 (twenty-two years ago)

scratched

YEAH TEN LETTERS... !!!!

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 15 January 2004 10:22 (twenty-two years ago)

(ok so I can't count)

― mark grout (mark grout), Thursday, 15 January 2004 10:24 (twenty-two years ago)

So basically the longest will be a 10 letter word CCCVVCCCed. Is that right?

― Markelby (Mark C), Thursday, 15 January 2004 14:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, but the only word that fits the bill is scraunched, which is archaic.

Mind you, the '-ed' would have been pronounced as a separate syllable then.

Jonathan Swift, in a letter of 1712. moaning about people running the past tense suffix into the preceding syllable:

There is another Sett of Men who have contributed very must to the spoiling of the English Tongue; I mean the Poets, from the Time of the Restoration. These Gentlemen, although they could not be insensible how much our Language was already overstocked with Monosyllables; yet, to save Time and Pains, introduced that barbarous Custom of abbreviating Words, to fit them to the Measure of their Verses; and this they have frequently done, so very injudiciously, as to form such harsh unharmonious Sounds, that none but a Northern Ear could endure: They have joined the most obdurate Consonants without one intervening Vowel, only to shorten a Syllable: And their Taste in time became so depraved, that what was a first a Poetical License not to be justified, they made their Choice, alledging, that the Words pronounced at length, sounded faint and languid. This was a Pretence to take up the same Custom in Prose; so that most of the Books we see now a-days, are full of those Manglings and Abbreviations. Instances of this Abuse are innumerable: What does Your Lordship think of the Words, Drudg'd, Disturb'd, Rebuk't, Fledg'd, and a thousand others, every where to be met in Prose as well as Verse? Where, by leaving out a Vowel to save a Syllable, we form so jarring a Sound, and so difficult to utter, that I have often wondred how it could ever obtain.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 15 January 2004 15:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, Strengths was the one I was looking for.

When pronounced it's got CCCVCCCC = s t r e ng k th s

― A Nairn (moretap), Thursday, 15 January 2004 20:18 (twenty-two years ago)

"4 consonants in a row surely is "rhythms"? Unless you're a pansy and argue that "y" is a vowel."

i think technically it is used as a vowel in the word "rhythms". it is pronounced like an "i" and not like its hard consonant sound in a word like "yellow".

― Emilymv (Emilymv), Thursday, 15 January 2004 20:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Who puts a 'k' in "strengths"?????

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 15 January 2004 20:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Many people pronounce "strengths" with a /k/ at one time or another.

Remember, A Nairn is talking about spoken length, so how a word is written doesn't matter. Otherwise "squirrelled" would win, but spoken it's only CCVCCC. There's also the archaic "strengthed," ten letters but only six consonants.

When you get bored with real words, try and figure out what the longest one-syllable word allowed by English syllable constraints would be, even if it doesn't exist.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Thursday, 15 January 2004 21:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Sorry, "squirrelled" is CCCVCCC.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Thursday, 15 January 2004 21:45 (twenty-two years ago)

OK, the longest one syllable word that does not exist...

Schloerqued

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 16 January 2004 10:17 (twenty-two years ago)

How do you say "squirrelled" with only one syllable? Wouldn't that end up as "scrolled"?

― Poppy (poppy), Friday, 16 January 2004 11:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Make it rhyme with "world." Also, "squirrelled" begins with /skwr/ and "scrolled" begins with /skr/ but I see your point. Wow, I guess that means "squirrelled" is CCCCVCC. I'm out of practice!

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 16 January 2004 18:27 (twenty-two years ago)

No really, who says "strengkths"?

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 16 January 2004 18:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Lots of people, in Britain anyway. Maybe even I do - I don't know now. The 'k' just kind of creeps in.

I'm equally bemused by the single syllable 'squirrelled'.

― N. (nickdastoor), Friday, 16 January 2004 18:51 (twenty-two years ago)

bostonians shouldn't tell people how to talk.

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 16 January 2004 18:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I'M NOT A BOSTONIAN I DO NOT HAVE THE ACCENT AT ALL.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 16 January 2004 18:53 (twenty-two years ago)

t/s: minnesota accent vs boston accent

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 16 January 2004 18:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I DON'T HAVE A MINNESOTA ACCENT, EITHER

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 16 January 2004 18:59 (twenty-two years ago)

When you say "strengths", does it at all sound like there's an "x" /ks/ sound at the end of the word?

I have now spent a minute saying /strengkths/ and /strengths/ and I can't remember which way I actually say it.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 16 January 2004 19:00 (twenty-two years ago)

ooh is it some cool hybrid then? "Lemme tellya aboot my cah..."

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 16 January 2004 19:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I think some people also say it /strenths/. I think that's how the priest I grew up with said it, "our manifold strenths and weaknesses".

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 16 January 2004 19:03 (twenty-two years ago)

do you have a PA accent, casuistry?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Friday, 16 January 2004 19:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Well I was born there and lived there until I was about 10. But I have a weird amalgamation of accents and quirks from all the places I've lived and from thinking too much about it.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 16 January 2004 19:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I say "Mary", "merry", and "marry" differently, if that helps. My bf has a friend named "Dawn" but he says it "Don" and I always get confused.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 16 January 2004 19:49 (twenty-two years ago)

No really, who says "strengkths"?

Really, most Americans do. Write down a sentence that uses it and ask a couple people you see to read it aloud.

― fortunate hazel (f. hazel), Friday, 16 January 2004 20:17 (twenty-two years ago)

There is a tendency to place a hard "g" or "k" sound after "ng."

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 16 January 2004 20:37 (twenty-two years ago)

ooh is it some cool hybrid then? "Lemme tellya aboot my cah..."

Welcome back teeny!

― Leee Majors (Leee), Friday, 16 January 2004 21:49 (twenty-two years ago)

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