Lecture
Logogriph (from Greek Λόγος word, and γρίφος net, riddle) - a stylistic device and a type of puzzle - a charade - consisting of a sequence of words formed by adding, dropping, or rearranging letters or syllables.
A logogriph is one of the language games, a charade complicated by being based on a metagram (words differing by one letter). In each line, one letter is dropped from the previous word.
This old rhyme was used by the Soviet writer Andrei Nekrasov in his famous novel "The Adventures of Captain Vrungel": the yacht was named "Pobeda" and immediately lost a couple of its first letters.
Strictly speaking, a logogriph is a kind of riddle constructed by transposing syllables and using different parts of a word in different senses.
The order of words in a logogriph can also be reversed, from short to long. One or several letters may be added or removed, primarily from the end or the middle of a word.
The use of riddles was very widespread among the Egyptians and other ancient peoples, as we see among other passages in ch. XIV of the Book of Judges, in which Samson poses one to his companions.
The kings of the East amused themselves by posing one another various riddles to demonstrate their sagacity, while medieval princes spent a certain amount of time composing and deciphering logogriphs, which came down to a game of letters.
An example of a logogriphic verse in Russian poetry is the epigram by L.N. Trefolev on the Ober-Procurator of the Holy Synod K.P. Pobedonostsev, punning on his surname (Pobedonostsev, "bearer of victory") by dropping the opening syllable line by line to yield mocking senses such as "bearer of dinner", "bearer of trouble", and "informer":
Победоносцев для синода,
Обедоносцев для двора,
Бедоносцев для народа
И доносцев для царя.
A logogriph may also refer to a verse riddle based on a similar principle.
In the novel «The Black Book» by Orhan Pamuk, logogriphs are used as a means of evading press censorship. [
Which predator must be deprived of one letter (in Russian)
for it to become a domestic animal?
С буквой «А» — мельчайшая частица,
Без буквы «А» — книга.
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