Syllabic consonants in English / syllabification of gerunds

[Niedokonany]

There are certain English verbs which end in the infinitive in what could be described as a syllabic consonant, at least in some dialects, and has also frequently been transcribed as a schwa + sonorant sequence, e.g. sparkle, babble etc.

Now I'm fairly sure I hear gerund or active participle forms where both of the syllables are preserved after adding the -ing suffix, like trisyllabic spark[l=]ing, on a regular basis. How widespread, normal and unmarked is it? No dictionary I know suggests that could or should be the case.

[Astraios]

How widespread, normal and unmarked is it?

Very. I read a poem once which had something like "bab'ling" to show that it was only disyllabic.


EDIT: As for myself, pronouncing it with a schwa (/ba.b@.lIN/) sounds "better" than without.

[Bedelato]

I do this. The final liquid remains syllabic when an ending is attached.
<sparkle> [ˈspʌ˞ɻˠkl̩ˤ] → <sparkling> [ˈspʌ˞ɻˠkl̩ˤˌɨŋ]

[TaylorS]

I think syllabic consonants staying syllabic when followed by a morpheme is pretty normal in English.

[makvas]

This reminds me how my mom always says "striped" as /straipId/ instead of the usual /straipt/... she doesn't seem to do this with any other words though.

[Niedokonany]

What about words like babbler? Can this be trisyllabic, too?

[Alces]

What about words like babbler? Can this be trisyllabic, too?

Yes; it is for me, for instance.

[Boşkoventi]

I do this too. Not all the time, I think, but it's pretty common.

What about words like babbler? Can this be trisyllabic, too?

Sure.

["laItnIN] seems like a noun ("lightning"); using it as a verb form, instead of ["laItn=IN] (participle / gerund of "lighten" -- "lightening"?)*, doesn't quite feel right. I don't think. (Tho I think I'd normally use a phrase like "getting/making (sth.) lighter" for the latter anyway.)

I think some of it has to do with speed of talking. Talking to myself (or to no one) right now, I find I'm less likely to keep consonants syllabic if I'm speaking quickly.

But syllabic R seems more likely to remain, even in quicker speech. (But, this may be more evidence that syllabic R is a vowel in my dialect / idiolect.)

"center" ["sE4~@`]
"centering" ["sE4~@`IN]

["sEntr\IN], with affrication-or-whatever of the /tr/, sounds wrong.

And it's not just due to t-flapping. ["bIkr\IN] for "bickering" instead of ["bIk.@`.IN] also sounds wrong.