It's a hard one .

[swannbaker]

When I was on Countdown , my selection of 1 " vowel " and 8 " consonants " enabled me to produce a 9 lettered English word . If I tell you that I used the " vowel " at the very beginning or end of the word , I'd like you to find the word .

[gen2]

You couldn't have been on Countdown because their rules prohibit choosing fewer than 3 vowels in the 9 letters.

[sarumite]

You just beat me to that observation gen2

[Quizmonkey]

Strengths is famously the only 8 consonants/1 vowel combination - but the vowel's obviously not at the end.

[Dustybun]

I think this is swannbaker on a lateral thinking trip. gen2 got the right answer, yes swannbaker? :O)

[swannbaker]

The question is hypothetical . The answer is not .

[swannbaker]

In the immortal words of Julie Andrews , let's make it a little easier . You seek an English 9 lettered word . It begins or ends with one of the 5 traditional vowels a , e , i , o or u . The other 8 letters , which thus appear consecutively , are consonants i . e . the other 21 letters , including y . There is a certain rhythm to the word you are looking for , and it may help if you read the correspondence to a question posed by Granny C earlier this day . Indeed , it was this that inspired my own question . With all this information , you should now be able to sally forth and come up with the right answer .The word , though obscure , is in the Oxford Shorter English Dictionary . The answer will be posted here at about this time tomorrow , if not identified earlier . Nice girl , that Sally Forth .

[swannbaker]

arrhythmy .