ABSTRACT Reduplication, one of regular ways of forming the Indo-European perfect, was inherited into the early Germanic as a marker of the preterite in some strong verbs. Of all older Germanic languages, Gothic as the only one retains this formation systematically; other dialects, due to large-scale modifications in the structure of their preterite, seem to have lost the original reduplication from their grammars. Although no reduplicated forms are properly attested in any of the Northwest Germanic dialects, Old English (not exclusively) displays a number of irregular formations within the seventh class of strong verbs, which have been traditionally considered reflexes of earlier reduplication. The Old English survivals of the originally reduplicated preterits, frequently referred to as r-preterites, are confined to one dialect only (Anglian) and include the following irregular forms: heht, leolc, speoft, beoft, leort, reord, ondreord (the preterite forms of hatan 'command', lacan 'leap', spatan 'spit', beatan 'beat', laetan 'let', raedan 'advise', ondraedan 'dread' respectively).
