Published September 1, 2020 | Version v1
Journal article Open

Dmitri Borgmann's Rotas Square Articles

  • 1. Austrian Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Description

In 1979 and 1980, Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics printed a series of articles on the early history, religious symbolism, and cultural significance of the rotas square, an ancient Latin-language palindromic word square.  The articles were attributed to Dmitri A. Borgmann, the noted American writer on wordplay and former editor of Word Ways.  While they attracted little attention at the time, some 35 years after their publication (and 29 years after Borgmann's death), questions began to be raised about their authorship.  There is much internal and external evidence that, taken together, compellingly supports the notion that Borgmann did not write the articles himself.  This paper surveys this evidence and solicits help in identifying the articles' original source.

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Funding

Computational Pun-derstanding M 2625
FWF Austrian Science Fund