Letter riddles and legends about alphabet

Object of the article: letter riddles based on splitting a word into parts by progressive removal of letters from it. Subject of the article: the structure of letter riddles. Purpose of research : to compare the structure of letter riddles with legends about the origin of alphabet. Research methods: structural and semantic. Results : the author argues that there is a structural similarity between letter riddles and legends about the origin of letters from parts of the dismembered human body. Field of application : literary and cultural studies. Conclusion : letter riddles based on breaking down the words into parts by progressive eliminations of the initial letter of each resultant word convey the motif of bodily fragmentation (“dismembered body”), which goes back to a sacrificial ritual. The author is indebted to Svetlana Gracheva, Dan Whitman and Oleg Zaslavsky for stimulating discussion and helpful advise.