hey this is my first post, and of course as are nearly all SDMB questions, it is pretty dorky. well neway, just out of curiosity, how are the letters of the alphabet spelled. and secondly, are there any words in english with the same letter three times consecutively?
Thanx
Well, I don’t know about the spelling of the letters, but I do know the answer to the second part of your question. The word is “goddessship.” *Now, can you name a word that has three consecutive double letters?
according to the scabble player’s dictionary, there is only one “word” that has the same letter three times:
brrr
hey, there’s a reason “word” was caged in quotes. 
according to the OED, “godess-ship” exists with a dash, so does “princess-ship” i suppose following the same paradigm, we can construct “actress-ship” and “baroness-ship” and “waitress-ship.”
three consecutive double letters?
BOOKKEEPER
You can go a little further and look for words with the same letter four times consecutively.
As for triple letter combinations
Cogitoergosum, what’s wrong with your shift key?
What? We are supposed to spell 26 letters of the alphabet? Hmmmmmm…ok, um, ‘em’ ‘en’ …or you could just look in your dictionary under each letter…
There is no special spellings for vowels, but I’ll try to give it a shot from memory (and many, many Scrabble games) for the consonants:
bee, cee, dee, ef, gee, aitch, jay, kay, el, em, en, pee, que, ar, es, tee, vee, *double-u, ex, wye, zee
These should all be in most decent dictionaries.
*Obviously, this one doesn’t pass Scrabble rules.
Hmmm…
ay, be, ci, di, ei, ef, gee, a-ch, eye, jay, kay, el, em, en, oh, pe, co-u, es, tea, you, vee, double-u, ecks, why, and zzzzeh.
Now I know my ay be ci’s, next time won’t you sing with me?
nope.
Well, several letters sound identical to English words. If you’re trying to communicate the sounds of letters, why not just use the words:
A, BE, SEA, GEE, EYE, JAY, CAY, OWE, PEA, CUE, TEA, EWE, WHY
I’m sure I’m forgetting some obscure ones here…
For more on triple letters as well as rare double letters, see http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words7.html
Subbookkeeper
Do you really want to know all this?[ul]
four double letters
successlessness
subbookkeeper
triple letters
brasssmith
chillloss
goddessship
headmistressship
weeest
seeer
frillless
brrr
esssse (an obsolete form of ashes) is in the oed2.
bossship
countessship
duchessship
governessship
hostessship
postmistressship
laparohysterosalpingooophorectomy[/ul]
Some of you will like this site, I’m sure:
Salpingooophorectomy: an operation to remove the fallopian tubes and related structures. Sometimes spelled salpingo-oöphorectomy.
Does anyone remember what it was that was supposed to be special about the word committee? Was it supposed to be the shortest word with 3 double-letter pairs, or the commonest? Or perhaps the shortest such common word, or the commonest such short word? Appellee is shorter (but less common), and successfully* appears to be about as common as committee, but not as short. Some other common words are addressee, bookkeeper, aggressiveness, and stubbornness. I have dozens more, but I won’t bore you . . . (Am I too late?)
Paul Dickson in his book “Words” cites for English teacher Joel Gaines in Honolulu, who contrived this double letter gem: balloonnoonnookkeeppoobah.
This would be the word to describe “an agent who sits on balloons in a corner at noon to earn his keep.”