if(isalpha(*(s-1)) && strchr(chrsep, *s) && isalpha(*(s+1))) {
  if(space_words(s, *s)) {
    char c = *s;
    while(*s) {
      if(*s == c) s++;
      else if(!isalpha(*s)) break;
      *p = *s;
      s++;
      p++;
    }
  }
}

##</code><code>##

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;

my @strings = (
  q|one two 'three' one|,
  q|yes i am 'sme'|,
  q|x21 y z|,
);

for my $str (@strings){
  my %hash;
  for ( map { length >= 3 ? $_ : () } $str =~ /(\w+)/g ) {
     $hash{$_}++;
  }
  print Dumper(\%hash);
}

##</code><code>##

$VAR1 = {
          'three' => 1,
          'one' => 2,
          'two' => 1
        };
$VAR1 = {
          'yes' => 1,
          'sme' => 1
        };
$VAR1 = {
          'x21' => 1
        };