consonants (up to six)

[Robert Mathiesen]

>          Try "umershchvlju" 1st sg. from umertvit'; I'm assuming the
>          pronunciation with the cluster shch, but even if one uses
>          the alternate pronuncation with a long soft sh, there are
>          still five consonantal segments in a row.  Once in a class a
>          native Russian, upon hearing the example, exclaimed that it
>          was "a crime against sound."
>                Charles Gribble  Gribble.3 at osu.edu

It's not Modern Standard Russian, but modern [Synodal] Church Slavonic,
but you can add one more consonant to that cluster by going to the past
active participle of the same verb: umershchvl'shij.  That makes six
consonants in all.

Robert Mathiesen  (SL500000 at BROWNVM.BITNET)