What words have an exceptional number of letters per syllable?

longest for each number of syllables 
  one SCRAUNCHED (10) [SQUIRRELLED (11)] two SCRATCHBRUSHED (14)
  one, for each letter  ARCHED, BROUGHAMS, CRAUNCHED, DRAUGHTS,
    EARTHED, FLINCHED, GROUCHED, HAUNCHED, ITCHED, JOUNCED, KNIGHTS,
    LAUNCHED, MOOCHED, NAUGHTS, OINKED, PREACHED, QUETCHED, REACHED,
    SCRAUNCHED, THOUGHTS, UMPHS, VOUCHED, WREATHED, XYSTS, YEARNED,
    ZOUAVES
  two, for each letter  ARCHFIENDS, BREAKTHROUGHS, CLOTHESHORSE,
    DRAUGHTBOARDS, EARTHTONGUES, FLAMEPROOFED, GREATHEART,
    HAIRSBREADTHS, INTHRALLED, JUNETEENTHS, KNICKKNACKS, LIGHTWEIGHTS,
    MOOSETONGUES, NIGHTCLOTHES, OUTSTRETCHED, PLOUGHWRIGHTS,
    QUICKTHORNS, ROUGHSTRINGS, SCRATCHBRUSHED, THROATSTRAPS,
    UNSTRETCHED, VERSESMITHS, WHERETHROUGH, XANTHINES, YOURSELVES,
    ZEITGEISTS

shortest for each number of syllables 
  two AA (2)
  three AREA (4) [O'IO (3)]
  four IEIE (4)
  five OXYOPIA (7)
  six ONIOMANIA (9) [AMIOIDEI (8)]
  seven EPIDEMIOLOGY (12) [OMOHYOIDEI (10)]
  eight EPIZOOTIOLOGY (13)
  nine EPIZOOTIOLOGICAL (16)
  ten EPIZOOTIOLOGICALLY (18)
  twelve HUMUHUMUNUKUNUKUAPUAA (21)

--
I think I remember that in the 1940's, a linguist (may have actually
been Whorf?) concluded that the longest English syllable in terms of
sounds (phonemes) -- not letters -- was "thou triumphedst" (presumably
based on a pronunciation of it as [traimpftst]).  Of course, this
involves some cheating (relying on fast speech coalescence of two
syllables into one, using archaic 1600's ending, etc.), but it's cute
in its way...

Henry Churchyard   churchh@usa.net   http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/
--

****
All unbracketed words occur in Webster's Third New International
Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Springfield, MA, 1961.

[ Editor: comments on the lists above. ]

I thought the standard answer [Editor: for the longest one-syllable
word] was
BROUGHAMMED (11) [travelled by brougham].

[Editor: of the one-syllable words for each letter:] EARTHED, [...],
WREATHED [Editor: "sound" in the original follows a quoted list] sound like 2-syllable words to me...

[Editor: of the two-syllable words:] Unfortunately the plural of GRANDCHILD is
not formed by adding S, but one can still say "when did her grandchild's
first tooth come out?".

[Editor: of the shortest words:] Presumably O'IO is a rendering of a spoken
"Ohio".  Again I ask what's an IEIE.

Perhaps also: three W (1), five EIEIO (5) ?  ;-)

-- Noam D. Elkies (elkies@zariski.harvard.edu)

For the shortest five-syllable word, I prefer "pahoeoe" for its
parallelism [Editor: the original has "paralellism"] with "aa".  (Both are kinds of lava.)

-- Mark Isaak (isaak@aurora.com)

[ Editor: the usual spelling of the lava is PAHOEHOE (8 letters). ]