Review of the literature about reduplication and ablaut of Germanic strong verbs of class VII

In the course of history, many different pathways have been attempted by scholars trying to solve the problem of the rise and development of Gmc strong class VII, with special reference to the question if they are the result of some evolution of reduplicated forms rather than of an independent development of different origin. Many proposals have been formulated in order to explain the nature of the class VII preterites but, as of today, there is no agreement on any single line of thought. Indeed, the matter is far from being settled yet. In this thesis, we will try to illustrate the progress of the research through a selection of papers by scholars who pursued different approaches (morpho-phonological, structuralist, generative), sometimes positing a direct evolution from Indo-European aorists, reduplication, or laryngeals, and sometimes introducing a Germanic innovation. The proposed theories include innovative ablaut formations, material infixation, analogy, laryngeal developments. A key factor is the role of the Gmc accent shift, which may have triggered class VII transformations. For space reasons, the problem of ē2, also relevant, will be treated only partially.