"syllabicity"

[petegray]

>> Pat said:

>>> I do not dispute that 'laryngeals' were consonantal in Nostratic but by
>>> Indo-European, I believe their consonantal had been lost except for
>>> Hittite.

>> (c) Reduplication of roots beginning with a laryngeal.   We find an
>> unexpected -i-: e.g. gan-igm-at < Hgen-Hgn-.

>I am not really sure why this is unexpected.

I don't understand your argument, Pat.   If the H's had lost their
consonantal value, as you claim, then they are either vowels or
non-existent.
(a) If they were vowels, there is no explanation for the non-appearance of
them at the beginning of these sanskrit roots.
(b) If they were non-existent, they could not magically produce an -i- when
the root is reiterated.

In other words,
(a) an original IE *Vgen  would not produce the attested root gan, but
*Vgan.
(b) an original IE root *gen would not produce the attested gan-i-gm-, but
gan-gm-.
(c) Only an original IE root *Hgan can produce this pattern of attested root
gan, but repeated gan-i-gam < Hgen-Hgn.

Peter