I agree that doubly-negated character classes can be very tricky, but with care, they can be managed to good effect.

I think of it this way: Start with  [^\W] which is the same as  [\w] (or just \w). As you point out, this includes digits and _ (underscore) as well as alphas. "Subtract", as it were, the digits with  [^\W\d] and underscore with  [^\W\d_] and you're left with all alpha characters. Then subtract your chosen vowels  [^\W\d_aeiouyAEIUOY] and you're done! 

c:\@Work\Perl\monks>perl -wMstrict -le
"my $s = '123 annn xyzzy wwwewww xxx9xxx vvv_vvv eieio p pp ppp 2015 v
+wxz vwxzpdq';
 ;;
 my $consonant = qr{ [^\W\d_aeiouyAEIUOY] }xms;
 ;;
 printf qq{'$_' } for $s =~ m{ $consonant{4,} }xmsg;
"
'vwxz' 'vwxzpdq'

[download]

All this is easier to manage, IMHO, with POSIX character classes or Unicode properties (if you're brave enough to venture out onto the thin, slippery ice of Unicode); both the following definitions work the same in the code above:
    my $consonant = qr{ [^[:^alpha:]aeiouyAEIUOY] }xms;
    my $consonant = qr{ [^\P{PosixAlpha}aeiouyAEIUOY] }xms;
YMMV. See perlrecharclass, perluniprops.

(See also the experimental Extended Bracketed Character Classes of version 5.18+; I can't give any examples using these ATM.)

Give a man a fish:  <%-(-(-(-<

In reply to Re^3: regular expressions by AnomalousMonk
in thread regular expressions by mbgbioinfo

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