Deseret alphabet

{{Short description|19th-century phonetic writing system devised by the LDS Church}} {{Redirect|Mormon script|alleged script of portions of the Book of Mormon|Reformed Egyptian}} {{Good article}} {{Infobox writing system | name = Deseret alphabet | native_name = {{lang|en-Dsrt|𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻}} | speakers1 = | states = | type = Alphabet | time = Mainly 1854–1869; some use in modern era | languages = English | creator = [[George D. Watt]], under the direction of the [[Board of Regents]], led by [[Brigham Young]] | sample = Deseret_Alphabet.svg | imagesize = 200px | unicode = [https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U10400.pdf U+10400–U+1044F] | iso15924 = Dsrt | fam1 = [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]] | fam2 = [[Proto-Sinaitic script]] | fam3 = [[Phoenician alphabet]] | fam4 = [[Greek alphabet]] | fam5 = [[Old Italic scripts|Old Italic]] | fam6 = [[Latin alphabet]] | fam7 = [[Isaac Pitman]] phonotypy | fam8 = ''[[English Phonotypic Alphabet]]'' | published = 1854 }} {{Contains special characters|Deseret}}The '''Deseret alphabet''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=en-us-Deseret.ogg|ˌ|d|ɛ|z|ə|ˈ|r|ɛ|t}};<ref>{{harvnb|Book of Mormon|page=534|loc="Pronunciation Guide"}}. Converted to [[wikipedia:IPA for English|IPA]] from ''dĕz-a-rĕt′'' according to key on p. 533.</ref> Deseret: {{Script|Dsrt|𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=University of Deseret |url=http://archive.org/details/thedeseretsecond02univ |title=[The Deseret second book |date=1868 |publisher=[Salt Lake City : The University] |others=Harold B. Lee Library}}</ref> or {{Script|Dsrt|𐐔𐐯𐑆𐐲𐑉𐐯𐐻}}<ref>{{Cite web |title=Deseret alphabet |url=https://www.omniglot.com/writing/deseret.htm |access-date=2025-09-06 |website=www.omniglot.com}}</ref>) is a [[phoneme|phonemic]] [[English-language spelling reform]] developed between 1847 and 1854 by the [[board of regents]] of the [[University of Deseret]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Arrington |first=Leonard J. |title=Brigham Young : American Moses |date=2012 |publisher=Vintage Books |isbn=978-0-345-80321-4 |location=New York |pages=353–8 |oclc=779877565}}</ref> under the leadership of [[Brigham Young]], the second [[President of the Church (LDS Church)|president]] of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church).<ref name="Moore2006" /> [[George D. Watt]] is reported to have been the most actively involved in the development of the script's novel characters,<ref name="Moore2006" /><ref name="Wentz1978">{{Cite book |url=http://web.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/38%20Mormon%20Characters%20by%20Roby%20Wentz.pdf |title=38 Mormon Characters: A Forgotten Chapter in Western Typographic History |last=Wentz |first=Roby |year=1978 |location=Los Angeles, California |access-date=7 January 2017 |archive-date=7 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107172851/http://web.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/38%20Mormon%20Characters%20by%20Roby%20Wentz.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Watt2009">{{Cite book|last=Watt|first=Ronald G.|url=https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1045&context=usupress_pubs|title=The Mormon Passage of George D. Watt: First British Convert, Scribe for Zion|publisher=[[Utah State University Press]]|year=2009|isbn=9780874217582|location=[[Logan, Utah]]|access-date=25 January 2022}}</ref>{{rp|159}} which were used to replace those of the 1847 version of [[Isaac Pitman]]'s [[English Phonotypic Alphabet|English phonotypic alphabet]]. He was also the "New Alphabet's" first serious user.<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 19, 1854 |title=The New Alphabet |work=Deseret News}}</ref><ref name="Beesley2004"/>{{rp|12}} The script gets its name from the word [[Deseret (Book of Mormon)|''deseret'']], a ''[[hapax legomenon]]'' in the [[Book of Mormon]], which is said to mean "[[honeybee]]" in the only verse it is used in.<ref>{{harvnb|Book of Mormon|page=489}}. {{sourcetext|source=Book of Mormon (1981)|book=Ether|chapter=2|verse=3}}: And they did also carry with them ''deseret, which, by interpretation, is a honey bee''; and thus they did carry with them swarms of bees, and all manner of that which was upon the face of the land, seeds of every kind.<div style="float:right">{{ea}}</div></ref> This reformation of English orthography was a first step to the ultimate restoration of [[Adamic language]] for use in the anticipated millennial dispensation of the fulness of times.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Young|first=Brigham|date=29 November 1858|title=1858 November 29 Letter to Frederick Edward Schonfield|url=https://brighamyoungcenter.org/s/byp/item/7056?property%5B0%5D%5Bjoiner%5D=and&property%5B0%5D%5Bproperty%5D=7&property%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=in&property%5B0%5D%5Btext%5D=1858&link=/s/byp/page/documents#?c=&m=&s=&cv=|journal=Brigham Young Papers;The Brigham Young Center}}</ref>

The Deseret alphabet was an outgrowth of the [[Restorationism|Restorationist]] [[ideal (ethics)|idealism]] and [[utopianism]] of Young and the early LDS Church. The "New Alphabet" was intended to correct "the corruptions and perversions of language which was originally pure", and to meet the urgent need for a language to "answer the demands of a constant intercommunication between several thousand languages". One "fitted to meet the great emergency of the great gathering and great work of teaching the law of the Lord to all people."<ref>{{Cite news |date=November 24, 1853|title=Regency|work=Deseret News}}</ref>

Young and the [[Mormon pioneers]] believed "all aspects of life" were in need of reform for the imminent [[Second Coming in Mormonism#The Millennium|Millennium]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Underwood |first=Grant |title=The millenarian world of early Mormonism |date=1993 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=0-252-02037-5 |location=Urbana |pages=6 |oclc=27643026}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Mauss |first=Armand L. |title=The angel and the beehive : the Mormon struggle with assimilation |date=1994 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=0-252-02071-5 |location=Urbana |pages=188 |oclc=28333190}}</ref> and the Deseret alphabet was just one of many ways in which they sought to bring about a complete "[[Social change|transformation in society]],"<ref name="Watt2009" />{{rp|142}} in anticipation of the [[Second Coming of Jesus]].<ref>LDS Tenth Article of Faith</ref>

In public statements, Young claimed the alphabet would replace the traditional [[Latin alphabet]] with an alternative, more [[phonetics|phonetically]] accurate alphabet for the [[English language]]. This would offer immigrants an opportunity to learn to read and write English, the [[orthography]] of which, he said, is often less phonetically consistent than those of many other languages.<ref name="Moore2006" />{{rp|65–66}} Young also proposed teaching the alphabet in the school system, stating "It will be the means of introducing uniformity in our orthography, and the years that are now required to learn to read and spell can be devoted to other studies."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Young |first=Brigham |title=Journal of Discourses |location=delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, UT |date=8 October 1868 |volume=12 |page=289}}</ref>

Between 1854 and 1869, the alphabet was used in scriptural newspaper passages, selected church records, a few diaries, and some correspondence. Occasional street signs and posters used the new letters. In 1860 a $5 gold coin was embossed 𐐐𐐬𐑊𐐨𐑌𐐮𐑅 𐐻𐐭 𐑄 𐐢𐐫𐑉𐐼 (Holiness to the Lord). In 1868–9, after much difficulty creating suitable fonts,<ref name="Watt2009" /> four books were printed: two school primers, the full [[Book of Mormon]], and a first portion of it, intended as a third school reader.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morgan |first=Dale L. |title=Dale Morgan on the Mormons: Collected Works, Part 1, 1939–1951 |publisher=Arthur Clark |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-87062-416-2 |location=Norman, OK |pages=210}}</ref>

Despite repeated and costly promotion by the early LDS Church, the alphabet never enjoyed widespread use, and it has been regarded by historians as a failure.<ref name="Moore2006" /><ref name="Beesley2004" /><ref name="Zobell1967" /><ref name="Simmonds1968" /><ref name="Spendlove2015">{{Cite journal |last=Spendlove |first=Loren Blake |date=2015-01-01 |title=Say Now Shibboleth, or Maybe Cumorah |url=https://journal.interpreterfoundation.org/say-now-shibboleth-or-maybe-cumorah/ |journal=Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture |language=en-US |volume=15 |access-date=8 July 2015 |archive-date=9 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150709005907/http://www.mormoninterpreter.com/say-now-shibboleth-or-maybe-cumorah/ |url-status=live }}</ref> However, in recent years, aided by [[digital typography]], the Deseret alphabet has been revived as a cultural [[heirloom]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Deseret Alphabet Translator |url=https://2deseret.com/ |access-date=2023-04-10 |website=2deseret.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Illinois Deseret Consortium |url=http://faculty.las.illinois.edu/rshosted/deseret.html |access-date=2023-04-12 |website=faculty.las.illinois.edu}}</ref>

Similar [[neographies]] have been attempted, the most well-known of which for English is the [[Shavian alphabet]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Drucker |first=Johanna |title=The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination |publisher=Thames and Hudson |year=1995 |isbn=9780500280683}}</ref>

== History ==

=== Creation (1847–1854) === The Deseret alphabet was a project of the [[Mormon pioneers]], a group of early followers of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church) who, motivated by [[revelation]]s of a unique [[premillennialism|premillennial]] [[eschatology]], had set about building a unique [[theocracy]] in the Utah desert, which was then still claimed by [[Mexico]], after the death of the church's founder, the [[prophet]] [[Joseph Smith]]. They were to build a "city of Zion" where converts would gather in preparation for the Second Coming of Christ.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Gathering of Israel |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/eng/history/topics/gathering-of-israel |access-date=2023-04-10 |website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org |language=en}}</ref> As part of that [[Gathering of Israel|Gathering]], in 1848, Church leaders urged converts in Europe to "emigrate as speedily as possible" to the Great Basin.<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 15, 1848 |title=Vol. 10, no 6. |pages=81–88 |work=Millennial Star}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hartley |first=William G. |title="Gathering," in Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History |publisher=Deseret Book |year=2000 |isbn=9781573458221 |location=Salt Lake City |pages=415 ff}}</ref> There, in the [[Kingdom of God (Latter Day Saints)|"Kingdom of God,"]]<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Young |first=Brigham |date= |title=July 1855 |journal=Journal of Discourses |volume=2|issue=310 }}</ref> under fused [[theo-democratic]] leadership, they would be safe from the fall of the [[Apostasy|apostate]] world of so-called "Babylon."

March 6, 1849, Church authorities organized the "free and independent government" called the [[State of Deseret]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bigler |first=David L. |title=Forgotten kingdom: the Mormon theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 |date=1998 |publisher=Arthur H. Clark Company |isbn=978-0-87062-282-3 |series=Kingdom in the West |location=Spokane, Wash |pages=46}}</ref> while retaining the [[Council of Fifty]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bigler |first=David L. |title=Forgotten kingdom: the Mormon theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 |date=1998 |publisher=Arthur H. Clark Company |isbn=978-0-87062-282-3 |series=Kingdom in the West |location=Spokane, Wash |pages=347}}</ref> In that historical context, which has been called "The Forgotten Kingdom,"<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Bigler |first=David L. |title=Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 |publisher=Arthur Clark Co. |year=1998 |isbn=978-0874212457 |location=Spokane |pages=16, 35}}</ref> there was a "compete identity of religious and temporal purpose throughout the history of the Alphabet."<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Morgan |first=Dale |title="The Deseret Alphabet" in Dale Morgan on the Mormons, Collected Works, Part 1, 1939–1951 |publisher=Arthur Clark Co. |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-87062-416-2 |location=Norman, OK |pages=166–99}}</ref> This theo-linguistic fusion has been noted by multiple historians.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Neff |first=Andrew Love |title=History of Utah 1847–1869 |publisher=Deseret News Press |year=1940 |location=Salt Lake City |pages=853}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=New |first=Douglas Allan |title=History of the Deseret Alphabet and Other Attempts to Reform English Orthography |publisher=Ph.D. dissertation, Utah State University |year=1985 |pages=88}}</ref><ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Grose |first=Andrew John |title=Of Two Minds: Language Reform and Millennialism in the Deseret Alphabet. |publisher=Master's thesis, Stanford University |year=2001 |pages=160}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Henrichsen |first=Lynn E. and Georgia Bailey |date=Fall 2010 |title="No More Strangers and Foreigners": The Dual Focus of the LDS Church Language Program for Scandinavian Immigrants, 1850–1935 |journal=Mormon Historical Studies |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=Note 38, p. 51 |via=BYU, L. Tom Perry Special Collections}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Alder |first=Douglas D., Paula J. Goodfellow, and Ronald G. Watt |title=Creating a New Alphabet for Zion: The Origin of the Deseret Alphabet |url=https://issuu.com/utah10/docs/uhq_volume52_1984_number3/s/143276 |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=issuu |language=en}}</ref>

Young wrote of the reform that "with a very few additions, it is believed, it would represent every sound used in the construction of any known language; and, in fact, a step and partial return to a pure language which has been promised unto us in the latter days", which meant the pure [[Adamic language]] spoken before the [[Tower of Babel]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dunn|first=Scott|date=1982-03-26|title=The Tongue of Angels?: Glossolalia in the Mormon Church|url=https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/dlls/vol8/iss1/26|journal=Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium|volume=8|issue=1|pages=38}}</ref><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{sourcetext|source=The Pearl of Great Price|version=1913|showsource=y|book=Moses|chapter=6|verse=5|range=–6}}</ref> The Deseret Typographical Association called the alphabet "a forerunner in that series of developments which shall prepare mankind for the reception of pure language".<ref>{{Cite news |title=Deseret News |work=August 15, 1855}}</ref> Brigham Young, Church President and Prophet, the "driving force" for the reform, looked forward to the time "when a man is full of light of eternity", and stated, "I shall yet see the time that I can converse with this people without opening my mouth."<ref>Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 1:69-71</ref>

The Deseret alphabet was developed primarily by a committee made up of the board of regents of the [[University of Deseret]], members of which included LDS Church leaders Brigham Young, [[Parley P. Pratt]], [[Heber C. Kimball]], and several of the other [[Apostle (Latter Day Saints)|Apostles]]. According to [[Brigham Young University]] professor Richard G. Moore, most scholars believe that [[George D. Watt]]'s contribution to the actual form the alphabet took, its unique [[glyph]]s, was the greatest;<ref name="Moore2006" /> he furthermore "plant[ed] the idea of [[spelling reform]] in Brigham Young's mind" through a [[Pitman shorthand|phonography]] class he gave after the [[death of Joseph Smith]] which Young attended.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|6}}<ref name="Watt2009" />{{rp|143}} [[W. W. Phelps (Mormon)|William W. Phelps]] helped "work out the letters"<ref>Jules Remy, ''A Journey to Salt Lake City'' (London, 1861) 185.</ref> along with Pratt.<ref name="Watt2009" />{{rp|147}} [[File:English Phonotypic Alphabet - 1847.png|left| thumb|The Deseret alphabet was based on the 1847 version of [[Isaac Pitman]]'s ''[[English Phonotypic Alphabet]]'', and in fact, Pitman's alphabet was nearly chosen by the Board of Regents as their preferred spelling reform.]] Before they decided on the Deseret alphabet, the attention of the board of regents was mostly focused on [[English Phonotypic Alphabet|Pitman style alphabets]], and in April 1847 Brigham Young nearly purchased {{Convert|200|lb|kg}} of [[sort (typesetting)|lead type]] to print books using Pitman's orthography.<ref name="Moore2006" /><ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|7}} The University of Deseret was incorporated on 28 February 1850; less than three weeks later, on 20 March, the new board of regents began to discuss spelling reform.<ref name="Moore2006" />

On 29 November 1853, the committee was ready to approve a slightly modified version of the Pitman orthography, when [[Apostle (Latter Day Saints)|Apostle]] [[Willard Richards]], [[First Presidency (LDS Church)|Second Counselor]] to Young, who had been deathly ill and missed the debate before the vote, saw the proposed alphabet, which spelled the word "phonetic" as "fɷnetic".<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|10}} Richards was quick to condemn it, saying to the committee: "We want a new kind of alphabet...those characters...seem like putting [[new wine into old bottles]]...I am inclined to think...we shall...throw away all characters that bear much resemblance to the English characters, and introduce an alphabet that is original...an alphabet entirely different from any alphabet in use."<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|10}}

These words persuaded Brigham Young and the rest of the committee, and Watt then endeavored to create an original alphabet. Less than two months later, on 19 January 1854, the board of regents finally approved the first 38-letter Deseret alphabet.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|11}} One legacy of Pitman's orthography survived, though: the idea that [[Phonemic orthography|one letter should equal one sound]].<ref name="Watt2009" />{{rp|150{{En dash}}152}}

=== Use by the Mormon pioneers (1854–1869) === Upon the alphabet's acceptance, its first user was its principal architect, George D. Watt, who began writing the meeting minutes of the early [[Bishop (Latter Day Saints)|Bishops]] in a cursive form of it in 1854.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|12}} Almost immediately after its publication, church members began experimenting with it, and by 1855 travel writers Jules Remy and [[Julius Brenchley]] published a chart of the new alphabet which differed heavily from the 1854 version. Some early Mormons, such as [[Thales Hastings Haskell]], began writing their personal journals in the new alphabet.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|16}} Remy further reported that during his time in [[Salt Lake City]], he saw signs on the street and above shops using the new alphabet.<ref name="Wentz1978" />

After its approval by the board of regents, Brigham Young testified before the [[Utah Legislature|Utah territorial legislature]] that the new alphabet should "be thoroughly and extensively taught in all the schools". Some teaching in Utah schools did take place: John B. Milner taught the alphabet in [[Provo, Utah|Provo]], [[Lehi, Utah|Lehi]], [[American Fork, Utah|American Fork]], and [[Pleasant Grove, Utah|Pleasant Grove]], while evening classes were taught in Salt Lake City and [[Farmington, Utah|Farmington]].<ref name="Moore2006" /><ref name="EveningStar1855">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/145765007/?terms=Deseret%2Balphabet |title=The Deseret Alphabet |date=11 June 1855 |work=Evening Star |location=Washington D.C. |url-access=subscription |access-date=2017-01-16 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=18 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118031608/https://www.newspapers.com/image/145765007/?terms=Deseret%2Balphabet |url-status=live }}</ref>

After several months' practice writing with the new alphabet, Watt wrote to Brigham Young that he was unhappy with it, and proposed a complete overhaul, which was never followed up on.<ref name="Beesley2002">{{Cite journal |last=Beesley |first=Kenneth R. |date=14 August 2002 |title=The Deseret Alphabet in Unicode |url=http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/Ken%20Beesley/Deseret%20in%20Unicode.pdf |journal=22nd International Unicode Conference |access-date=6 January 2017 |archive-date=10 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140610063124/http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/Ken%20Beesley/Deseret%20in%20Unicode.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|22}}

Word of the new alphabet soon spread outside Utah, and most press reports in non-Mormon papers were critical.<ref name=":11">{{Cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT18580123.2.13 |title=Mormon Secretiveness |date=1858-01-23 |work=Lyttelton Times |access-date=2017-01-16 |via=National Library of New Zealand |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729202652/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT18580123.2.13 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20321179/?terms=Deseret%2Balphabet |title=Affairs in Utah |date=4 March 1872 |work=The New York Times |page=1 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2017-01-16 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=18 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118031455/https://www.newspapers.com/image/20321179/?terms=Deseret%2Balphabet |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Schindler1998" /> Other writers, however, acquainted with other phonotypic and stenographic alphabets, ranged from neutral descriptions of the new alphabet<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/217513123/?terms=Deseret%2Balphabet |title=Mormon Items{{Emdash}}From Salt Lake |date=10 May 1856 |work=The Chicago Tribune |url-access=subscription |access-date=16 January 2017 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729195509/https://www.newspapers.com/image/217513123/?terms=Deseret%2Balphabet |url-status=live }}</ref> to praise.<ref name="EveningStar1855" />

Until this point, all the printed material (mostly just charts of the alphabet and its standard orthography equivalents) had been produced with large [[wood type|wooden type]], which was not suitable for printing at small sizes. Because the alphabet was wholly unique, no font existed, so in 1857 the board of regents appointed [[Erastus Snow]] to procure metal type from [[St. Louis]]-based [[font foundry]] Ladew & Peer. However, in May 1857 the [[Utah War]] began, and Snow left St. Louis to support the Mormon pioneers. During the war, Ladew & Peer kept working on the type, and the [[punchcutting|punches]] and [[matrix (printing)|matrices]] were delivered in the winter of 1858. The first use of the new type was to make a business card for [[George A. Smith]], an early [[Mormon historian]].<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|15}} [[File:Sermon on the Mount 16 Feb 1859 Deseret News.jpg|left|thumb|The [[Sermon on the Mount]] as it appears in the 16 February 1859 edition of the ''[[Deseret News]]''.]] In 1859, with the new type in hand, the ''Deseret News'' began printing with it. It would print one piece per issue in the new alphabet, usually a quotation from ''[[The Book of Mormon]]'' or the [[New Testament]]. However, this only lasted for one year, after which the practice stopped; it would start again in May 1864 and stop permanently at the end of that year.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|20}}{{Multiple image| align = | direction = | width = | footer = The covers of two [[primer (textbook)|primer]]s published in the Deseret alphabet during the life of Brigham Young, the ''Deseret First Book'' and the ''Deseret Second Book''.

Their inscriptions read:

𐐜 𐐔𐐇𐐝𐐀𐐡𐐇𐐓 𐐙𐐊𐐡𐐝𐐓/𐐝𐐇𐐗𐐊𐐤𐐔 𐐒𐐋𐐗 𐐒𐐌 𐐜 𐐡𐐀𐐖𐐇𐐤𐐓𐐝 𐐱𐑂 𐑄 𐐔𐐇𐐝𐐀𐐡𐐇𐐓 𐐏𐐆𐐅𐐤𐐆𐐚𐐊𐐡𐐝𐐆𐐓𐐆 1868.

THE DESERET FIRST/SECOND BOOK BY THE REGENTS of the DESERET UNIVERSITY 1868. | image1 = Deseret First Book cover.jpg | width1 = 1044 | caption1 = | image2 = Deseret Second Book cover.jpg | width2 = 2129 | caption2 = | total_width = 360 | height1 = 1771 | height2 = 3511 }}[[Benn Pitman]], the brother of Isaac Pitman, was also interested in spelling reform, and by 1864 had published his own orthography, which the board of regents considered adopting. However, they ultimately decided not to and used the opportunity to re-affirm their commitment to the Deseret alphabet.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|20}}

Brigham Young blamed the failure of this first attempt at reform on the ugliness of the type developed by Ladew & Peer, and so he commissioned Russell's American Steam Printing House, a [[New York City]] based font foundry, to design more pleasing type. The result was the [[Bodoni]]-esque font (below) that was used to print all of the books in this period.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|20}} In an 1868 article, the ''Deseret News'' wrote that "the characters, to a person unaccustomed to them, may look strange, [but] to the eye to which they are familiar they are beautiful."<ref name="Moore2006" />{{rp|69}}

At least four books were published in the new alphabet, all transcribed by [[Orson Pratt]] and all using the Russell's House font: ''The First Deseret Alphabet Reader'' (1868), ''The Second Deseret Alphabet Reader'' (1868), ''The Book of Mormon'' (1869), and a ''Book of Mormon'' excerpt called ''[[First Book of Nephi|First Nephi]]–[[Book of Omni|Omni]]'' (1869).<ref name="Moore2006" />{{rp|69–70}}

Considerable non-printed material in the Deseret alphabet was made, including a replica headstone in [[Cedar City, Utah]],<ref>{{Citation |title= Iron County |work= I Love History: Place: Counties |publisher= Utah Division of State History |url=http://ilovehistory.utah.gov/place/counties/iron.html#explorers |access-date= 20 October 2011 |archive-date= 20 November 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111120054800/http://www.ilovehistory.utah.gov/place/counties/iron.html#explorers |url-status= dead }}</ref> some coinage, letters, diaries, and meeting minutes. One of the more curious items found in the Deseret alphabet is an English-[[Hopi language|Hopi]] dictionary prepared by two Mormon missionaries. The handwritten document sat in the [[Church History Library|LDS Church Archives]], largely ignored until 2014 when [[writing system]] researcher and computer scientist Kenneth R. Beesley re-discovered it and transcribed it into standard written English.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Beesley |first1=Kenneth R. |last2=Elzinga |first2=Dirk |date=2014 |title=An 1860 English-Hopi Vocabulary Written in the Deseret Alphabet |publisher=The University of Utah Press |url=https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/an-1860-english-hopi-vocabulary-written-in-the-deseret-alphabet/ |access-date=2023-01-26 |language=en-US |archive-date=8 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221208154108/https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/an-1860-english-hopi-vocabulary-written-in-the-deseret-alphabet/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Decline (1869–1877) === {{Multiple image | align = | direction = | width = | footer = The final book the Mormon pioneers printed in the Deseret alphabet: a three part ''Book of Mormon''. On left, the cover of volume one; on right, the Deseret alphabet chart in the book. | image1 = Book of mormon deseret.jpg | width1 = 1971 | caption1 = | image2 = Deseret_chart_in_Book_of_Mormon_1869.png | width2 = 2184 | caption2 = | height1 = 3408 | height2 = 3522 | total_width = 360 }}

Despite years of heavy promotion, the Deseret alphabet was never widely adopted. This reluctance was partly due to prohibitive costs; the project had already cost the early church $20,000,<ref name="Moore2006">{{Cite web|url=http://web.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/Magazine%20articles/The%20Religious%20Educator/Deseret%20Alphabet%20Experiment2.pdf|title=The Deseret Alphabet Experiment|last=Moore|first=Richard G.|year=2006|website=Religious Studies Center|publisher=Brigham Young University|access-date=2017-01-06|archive-date=31 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131191507/http://web.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/Magazine%20articles/The%20Religious%20Educator/Deseret%20Alphabet%20Experiment2.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|76}} with $6,000 going to Pratt as remuneration for his transcription effort<ref name="Simmonds1968">{{Cite news|url=http://web.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/Magazine%20articles/True%20Frontier/Utah%27s%20Strange%20Alphabet%20by%20A.%20J.%20Simmonds1968.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729222045/http://web.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/Magazine%20articles/True%20Frontier/Utah%27s%20Strange%20Alphabet%20by%20A.%20J.%20Simmonds1968.pdf|archive-date=29 July 2020|url-status=live|title=Utah's Strange Alphabet|last=Simmonds|first=A. J.|publisher=Major Magazines, Inc.|year=1968|location=Sparta, Illinois|access-date=2017-01-10}}</ref> and most of the rest going to cutting metal type featuring the new alphabet and printing costs.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|6}} In 1859, Orson Pratt estimated that the cost of supplying all [[Utah Territory]] [[History of education in the United States#Federal era|schoolchildren]] with suitable textbooks would be over $5,000,000.<ref name="Moore2006" />{{rp|76}} [[File:Peoples Ticket, Salt Lake City, circa 1876, Mormons, front of.jpg|left|thumb|An 1876 [[Ticket (election)|campaign ticket]] for the [[People's Party of Utah]]. The Deseret type is recycled to make a border. The "words" in the border are [[gibberish]].]] According to Beesley, many have written that interest in the Deseret alphabet died with Brigham Young. This, however, is not true; the alphabet was already regarded as a failure during Young's time.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|29}} Only 500 copies of the full ''Book of Mormon'' translated into the Deseret alphabet sold for $2 each, and even Young realized that the venture was too expensive and even the most devout Mormons could not be convinced to purchase and study the Deseret edition books over the books in the traditional orthography.<ref name="Wentz1978" /><ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|27}} In the winter of 1870, just one year after their publication, advertisements for the Deseret alphabet books were quietly removed from the ''Deseret News''.<ref name="Simmonds1968" />

Contemporary writers noted that thousands of copies of the 15¢ and 20¢ Deseret primers went unsold,<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|6}} and historian Roby Wentz speculated that the LDS Church at that time had a "cache" of the primers in mint condition, which it was slowly selling off; according to him, one such primer sold for $250 in 1978.<ref name="Wentz1978" />

The Mormons had planned to use the profits from sale of the earlier books to fund printing of more books, and in anticipation Orson Pratt had already transcribed the complete [[Bible]], ''[[Doctrine and Covenants]]'', and [[John Jaques (Mormon)|John Jaques]]'s ''Catechism for Children''.<ref name="Zobell1967">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/improvementera7007unse|title=The Improvement Era|last=Zobell |first=Albert L. Jr.|publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|year=1967|volume=70|issue=7|location=Salt Lake City|pages=[https://archive.org/details/improvementera7007unse/page/n11 10]–11}}</ref> Pratt had also prepared an apparent sequel to the primers, the ''Deseret Phonetic Speller''. After the sales failure, however, none of these books were ever published and were thought lost until being rediscovered in a storage area of the LDS Church Archives in Salt Lake City in May 1967.<ref name="Simmonds1968" /><ref name="Zobell1967" />

Ralph Vigoda, a reporter for ''[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]'', has speculated that the completion of the [[Transcontinental railroad]] may have contributed to the alphabet's downfall: non-Mormons, not loyal to Brigham Young, became a large part of the city, and without the religious motivation it would be difficult indeed to get them to learn a new alphabet.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/176073436/?terms=deseret%2Balphabet|title=A churchman's failed mission: Language logic|last=Vigoda|first=Ralph|date=3 June 1990|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|page=2C|access-date=14 January 2017|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=16 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116183849/https://www.newspapers.com/image/176073436/?terms=deseret%2Balphabet|url-status=live}}</ref> In a retrospective piece, historian A. J. Simmonds claims that the new railroad doomed the alphabet. According to him, easy access to "the whole literature of the English speaking world" rendered the alphabet useless.<ref name="Simmonds1968" />

In July 1877, Young tried one more time at a spelling reform, ordering lead type designed for the orthography of [[Benn Pitman]] (Isaac's brother) with the intention of printing an edition of the ''Book of Mormon'' and ''Doctrine and Covenants'' using it. Most of the type had arrived by August, but with Young's death, the translation was never undertaken and the type never used. Young's death thus marked the end of the Mormon experimentation with English spelling reforms.<ref name="Moore2006" /><ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|29}}

=== Rediscovery in the computer era === [[File:Three phrases in Deseret.svg|thumb|Three questions ("Where is my room?", "Where is the beach?" and "Where is the bar?") in a Deseret digital computer typeface]]

Modern [[digital typography]] has reduced the costs of typesetting substantially, especially for small print runs.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o_TKBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA149|title=Handbook of Typography for the Mathematical Sciences|last=Krantz|first=Steven G.|date=2000-08-31|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9781420036015|pages=149|language=en|access-date=26 August 2017|archive-date=1 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801014916/https://books.google.com/books?id=o_TKBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA149|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Free content|Freely licensed]] Deseret alphabet fonts can be used at no additional cost.

[[Film director]] [[Trent Harris]] used the Deseret alphabet in his 1994 satire of Mormon theology, ''[[Plan 10 from Outer Space]]'', where it features as an alien language used on a mysterious "Plaque of [[Kolob]]".<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|37}}

During the 1996 Utah Centennial celebration, an [[activity book]] for children was distributed, within which one of the activities was for a child to write their own name in the alphabet. The book says that a child who does this will be "the first kid in 100 years to write [their] name in the Deseret alphabet!"<ref name="Zion1996">{{Cite web|url=http://brionzion.com/a-b-book.htm |title=Brion Zion's DESERET ALPHABET BOOK |last=Zion |first=Brion |year=1996 |website=brionzion.com |publisher=Wanderer Press, L.C. |access-date=2017-01-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703094802/http://brionzion.com/a-b-book.htm |archive-date=2015-07-03 }}</ref>

Also in 1996, ''Buffalo River Press'' published a reprint of the ''Deseret First Book'', of which only 10,000 were originally printed.<ref name="Zion1996" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Deseret First Book (Deseret Alphabet) Historic Reprint |date=1996-01-01 |publisher=Buffalo River Press |isbn=9781887727020|edition=Later printing |location=Salt Lake City |language=en}}</ref> The entire ''Book of Mormon'' in the Deseret alphabet has been likewise reprinted,<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Book of Mormon (2015 Deseret Alphabet edition): Another Testament of Jesus Christ |first=Joseph | last= Smith | author-link=Joseph Smith |date=2015-01-31 |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |isbn=9781507628232|language=en}}</ref> as only 500 copies from the original print run exist, and they can sell on eBay for ≈$7,500 (as of 2004).<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|47}} In 1997, John Jenkins [[electronic publishing|uploaded]] a free three part [[Portable Document Format|PDF]] of the so-called "triple combination", that is, a combined ''Book of Mormon'', ''Doctrine and Covenants'' and ''[[Pearl of Great Price (Mormonism)|Pearl of Great Price]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.deseretalphabet.org/files/Triple.pdf |title=Triple Combination: Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price in the Deseret Alphabet |translator=John Jenkins |year=1997 |website=Deseret Alphabet Portal |location=Cupertino, California |access-date=14 September 2019 |archive-date=30 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830214827/http://deseretalphabet.org/files/Triple.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

John Jenkins has gone on to publish many classic pieces of [[English literature]] in the Deseret alphabet, such as ''[[Alice in Wonderland]],''<ref>{{Cite book |title=Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (𐐈𐑊𐐮𐑅'𐑆 𐐈𐐼𐑂𐐯𐑌𐐽𐐲𐑉𐑆 𐐮𐑌 𐐎𐐲𐑌𐐼𐐲𐑉𐑊𐐰𐑌𐐼): An edition printed in the Deseret Alphabet |last=Carroll |first=Lewis |others=Foreword by: John H. Jenkins |date=2014-09-21 |url=https://www.evertype.com/carrolliana.html |publisher=[[Evertype]] |isbn=9781782010647 |language=en |access-date=23 January 2017 |archive-date=10 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170210102915/http://www.evertype.com/carrolliana.html |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'',<ref name="Austen2013">{{Cite book|title=𐐑𐑉𐐴𐐼 𐐰𐑌𐐼 𐐑𐑉𐐯𐐾𐐲𐐼𐐮𐑅 |trans-title=Pride and Prejudice | others= Adapter: John H. Jenkins |last=Austen |first=Jane |date=2013-04-01 |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |isbn=9781482672015|edition=1|language=en}}</ref> and ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]].''<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Wonderful Wizard of Oz |last=Baum |first=L. Frank |date=2016-12-30 |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |isbn=9781541134720|language=en}}</ref>

Owing to the character set's inclusion in Unicode, most of the original books and many of the original manuscripts have been transcribed into [[plain text]],<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|32–34}} and, when this is not possible due to discrepancies between the Unicode reference glyphs and the documents, [[LaTeX]].<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|42}}

==== Fonts ==== [[File:Information wants to be free in five different modern computer fonts for the Deseret alphabet.svg|thumb |300x300px |The phrase "𐐆𐑌𐑁𐐲𐑉𐑋𐐩𐑇𐐲𐑌 𐐶𐐪𐑌𐐻𐑅 𐐻𐐭 𐐺 𐑁𐑉𐐨" ([[Information wants to be free]]) in five Deseret fonts. From top, Noto Sans Deseret, QueenBee Star, TuBeeRound, Times Bee and Analecta.]] The first digital font for the Deseret alphabet, called "Deseret", was designed by Greg Kearney as part of work he was doing for the [[Church History Library|LDS Church History Department]] in 1991; the font was used in an [[Exhibit design|exhibit]] that year.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|32}} In August 1995, a cleaned up, digitized version of the font in use in the ''Deseret Second Book'' was created by Salt Lake City graphic designer Edward Bateman, who made the font in [[Fontographer]] while working on ''[[Plan 10 from Outer Space]]''.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|32–33}}

Kenneth R. Beesley created a [[Metafont]] (and thus, LaTeX-compatible) font called {{Monospace|[https://github.com/ctrlcctrlv/desalph desalph]}} in 2002.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|37–38}}<ref name="desalph_source">{{Cite web|url=https://github.com/ctrlcctrlv/desalph/blob/3c2544fc4b69c3eae0e09369a5e86d7e43c843e0/mf/desalph.txt|title=<code>desalph.mf</code> source code|date=2002-02-23|last=Beesley|first=Kenneth R.|via=[[GitHub]]|access-date=12 May 2021|archive-date=25 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125014224/https://github.com/ctrlcctrlv/desalph/blob/3c2544fc4b69c3eae0e09369a5e86d7e43c843e0/mf/desalph.txt|url-status=live}}</ref>

All computers running [[Microsoft]]'s [[Windows 7]] operating system or newer can display the entire Deseret alphabet Unicode range as the glyphs are included in the [[Segoe#Variations|Segoe UI Symbol]] font.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/ee426904.aspx |title=What's New for International Customers in Windows 7 |website=Microsoft Developer Network |publisher=Microsoft |access-date=2017-01-19 |quote=In Windows 7, support for 10 new scripts is added: Braille, '''Deseret''', New Tai Lue, Ogham, Osmanya, Phags-pa, Runic, Symbols, Tai Le, and Tifinagh. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131184755/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/ee426904.aspx |archive-date=2017-01-31 }}</ref>

Besides maintaining a Deseret [[input method]] for Windows, Joshua Erickson, a [[UCLA]] alumnus, also maintains a large collection of [[freeware]] Unicode fonts for the alphabet, which he collectively terms the "Bee Fonts."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Sans_Serif.html |title=Deseret Bee Fonts |last=Erickson |first=Joshua |website=Joshua Erickson's Deseret Alphabet Pages |publisher=University of California Los Angeles Chemistry & Biochemistry Department |access-date=2017-01-06 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202706/http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Sans_Serif.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

There also exist [[free software]] fonts for the Deseret alphabet. [[Google]], through its [[Noto Sans]] project, the aim of which is "to support all languages with a harmonious look and feel", has also released a Deseret font under the name "Noto Sans Deseret".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.google.com/get/noto/ |title=Google Noto Fonts |website=www.google.com |access-date=2017-01-06 |archive-date=8 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170108130144/https://www.google.com/get/noto/ |url-status=live }}</ref> George Douros maintained a [[public domain]] font called "Analecta" until 2022 as part of his [[Unicode Fonts for Ancient Scripts]] project, which supports the [[Coptic language|Coptic]], [[Gothic language|Gothic]], and Deseret scripts and is still available on [[archive.org]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/ |title=Unicode Fonts for Ancient Scripts |last=Douros |first=George |date=1 October 2015 |access-date=7 January 2017 |archive-date=4 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130404153949/http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/Analecta401.zip |url-status=live }}</ref> Deseret glyphs are also available in the popular pan-Unicode fonts [[Code2000|Code2001]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.alanwood.net/unicode/deseret.html |title=Deseret – Test for Unicode support in Web browsers |last=Wood |first=Alan |date=27 October 2001 |website=Alan Wood's Unicode Resources |access-date=2017-01-19 |archive-date=4 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204215420/http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/deseret.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Everson Mono]] (as of version 5.1.5).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.evertype.com/emono/ |title=Everson Mono |last=Everson |first=Michael |date=2008-12-28 |website=Evertype |access-date=2017-01-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705024437/http://www.evertype.com/emono/ |archive-date=2017-07-05 }}</ref>

== Alphabet == Although the Deseret alphabet has [[letter case]], usually the only difference between the minuscule and majuscule forms is that the majuscule forms are larger.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 1em auto;" ! Glyph !! Name !! IPAc-en| |rowspan="11"| ! Glyph !! Name !! IPAc-en| |rowspan="11"| ! Glyph !! Name !! IPAc-en| |rowspan="11"| ! Glyph !! Name !! IPAc-en| |- | 𐐀 𐐨 [[File:Deseret capital long I.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small long I.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Long I || {{IPAc-en|iː}} || 𐐁 𐐩 [[File:Deseret capital long E.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small long E.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Long E || {{IPAc-en|eɪ}} || 𐐂 𐐪 [[File:Deseret capital long A.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small long A.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Long A || {{IPAc-en|ɑː}} || 𐐃 𐐫 [[File:Deseret capital long Ah.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small long Ah.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Long Ah || {{IPAc-en|ɔː}} |- | 𐐄 𐐬 [[File:Deseret capital long O.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small long O.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Long O || {{IPAc-en|oʊ}} || 𐐅 𐐭 [[File:Deseret capital long Oo.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small long Oo.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Long Oo || {{IPAc-en|uː}} || 𐐆 𐐮 [[File:Deseret capital short I.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small short I.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Short I || {{IPAc-en|ɪ}} || 𐐇 𐐯 [[File:Deseret capital short E.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small short E.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Short E || {{IPAc-en|ɛ}} |- | 𐐈 𐐰 [[File:Deseret capital short A.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small short A.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Short A || {{IPAc-en|æ}} || 𐐉 𐐱 [[File:Deseret capital short Ah.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small short Ah.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Short Ah || {{IPAc-en|ɒ}} || 𐐊 𐐲 [[File:Deseret capital short O.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small short O.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Short O || {{IPAc-en|ʌ}} || 𐐋 𐐳 [[File:Deseret capital short Oo.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small short Oo.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Short Oo || {{IPAc-en|ʊ}} |- | 𐐌 𐐴 [[File:Deseret capital Ay.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Ay.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Ay || {{IPAc-en|aɪ}} || 𐐍 𐐵 [[File:Deseret capital Ow.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Ow.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Ow || {{IPAc-en|aʊ}} || 𐐎 𐐶 [[File:Deseret capital Wu.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Wu.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Wu || {{IPAc-en|w}} || 𐐏 𐐷 [[File:Deseret capital Yee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Yee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Yee || {{IPAc-en|j}} |- | 𐐐 𐐸 [[File:Deseret capital H.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small H.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || H || {{IPAc-en|h}} || 𐐑 𐐹 [[File:Deseret capital Pee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Pee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Pee || {{IPAc-en|p}} || 𐐒 𐐺 [[File:Deseret capital Bee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Bee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Bee || {{IPAc-en|b}} || 𐐓 𐐻 [[File:Deseret capital Tee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Tee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Tee || {{IPAc-en|t}} |- | 𐐔 𐐼 [[File:Deseret capital Dee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Dee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Dee || {{IPAc-en|d}} || 𐐕 𐐽 [[File:Deseret capital Chee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Chee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Chee || {{IPAc-en|tʃ}} || 𐐖 𐐾 [[File:Deseret capital Jee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Jee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Jee || {{IPAc-en|dʒ}} || 𐐗 𐐿 [[File:Deseret capital Kay.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Kay.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Kay || {{IPAc-en|k}} |- | 𐐘 𐑀 [[File:Deseret capital Gay.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Gay.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Gay || {{IPAc-en|ɡ}} || 𐐙 𐑁 [[File:Deseret capital Ef.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Ef.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Ef || {{IPAc-en|f}} || 𐐚 𐑂 [[File:Deseret capital Vee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Vee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Vee || {{IPAc-en|v}} || 𐐛 𐑃 [[File:Deseret capital Eth.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Eth.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Eth || {{IPAc-en|θ}} |- | 𐐜 𐑄 [[File:Deseret capital Thee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Thee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Thee || {{IPAc-en|ð}} || 𐐝 𐑅 [[File:Deseret capital Es.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Es.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Es || {{IPAc-en|s}} || 𐐞 𐑆 [[File:Deseret capital Zee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Zee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Zee || {{IPAc-en|z}} || 𐐟 𐑇 [[File:Deseret capital Esh.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Esh.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Esh || {{IPAc-en|ʃ}} |- | 𐐠 𐑈 [[File:Deseret capital Zhee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Zhee.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Zhee || {{IPAc-en|ʒ}} || 𐐡 𐑉 [[File:Deseret capital Er.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Er.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Er || {{IPAc-en|r}} || 𐐢 𐑊 [[File:Deseret capital El.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small El.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || El || {{IPAc-en|l}} || 𐐣 𐑋 [[File:Deseret capital Em.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Em.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Em || {{IPAc-en|m}} |- | 𐐤 𐑌 [[File:Deseret capital En.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small En.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || En || {{IPAc-en|n}} || 𐐥 𐑍 [[File:Deseret capital Eng.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]][[File:Deseret small Eng.svg|25px|class=skin-invert]] || Eng || {{IPAc-en|ŋ}} |style="background-color:#CCCCCC"| 𐐦 𐑎 [[File:Deseret capital Oi.svg|25px]][[File:Deseret small Oi.svg|25px]] ||style="background-color:#CCCCCC"| Oi[[#notpart|*]] ||style="background-color:#CCCCCC"| {{IPAc-en|ɔɪ}} |style="background-color:#CCCCCC"| 𐐧 𐑏 [[File:Deseret capital Ew.svg|25px]][[File:Deseret small Ew.svg|25px]] ||style="background-color:#CCCCCC"| Ew[[#notpart|*]] ||style="background-color:#CCCCCC"| {{IPAc-en|j|uː}} |- |colspan=15|{{Anchor|notpart}}{{Color sample|#CCCCCC|description=Gray}} *Not part of original alphabet; see [[#Versions|§ Versions]] below |}

A degree of free spelling is allowed to accommodate dialectal differences in English. For example, in the Deseret edition of ''The Book of Mormon'', the word "wherefore" is written as 𐐸𐐶𐐩𐑉𐑁𐐬𐑉 ({{IPAc-en|hw|ɛər|f|oʊ|r}}),<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/bookofmormdeseretalpha00|title=Book of Mormon in the Deseret Alphabet|last=Smith|first=Joseph|publisher=Corporation of the Presiding Bishop, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|year=1869|edition=1990|pages=[https://archive.org/details/bookofmormdeseretalpha00/page/2 2]}}</ref> which means that the translator of the book did not exhibit the [[wine–whine merger]]. Those who do exhibit the merger might instead prefer the spelling 𐐶𐐯𐑉𐑁𐐬𐑉 to match the pronunciation ({{IPAc-en|w|ɛr|f|oʊ|r}}), or, depending on [[List of dialects of the English language#United States|dialect]], perhaps 𐐶𐐯𐑉𐑁𐐫𐑉 ({{IPAc-en|w|ɛr|f|ɔː|r}}).<ref name="Walker2005" />{{rp|38}}

The alphabet was designed to be able to write all of the vowels used in the dialect spoken in 19th century Utah. The vowel inventory has also been attributed to the fact that, unlike other [[American pioneer]]s, the Mormon pioneers were from [[New England]] as opposed to the [[Southern United States|American South]].<ref name="Beesley2004" /> As such, many of the vowels in the Deseret alphabet have since [[Phonological change|merged]] in the modern era: they are no longer distinguished in some dialects of English, particularly dialects of US English, though are still present in others, such as many varieties of British English.

Speakers who exhibit the [[father–bother merger]] no longer distinguish {{IPAc-en|ɑː}} (𐐪) and {{IPAc-en|ɒ}} (𐐱), and so both "father" and "bother" would be written with 𐐪: as 𐑁𐐪𐑄𐐲𐑉 and 𐐺𐐪𐑄𐐲𐑉 as opposed to 𐑁𐐪𐑄𐐲𐑉 and 𐐺𐐱𐑄𐐲𐑉. For those with the [[cot–caught merger]], {{IPAc-en|ɔː}} (𐐫) and {{IPAc-en|ɒ}} (𐐱) are no longer distinguished: both "cot" and "caught" are thus written by them as 𐐿𐐱𐐻 ({{IPAc-en|k|ɒ|t}}) in the case of [[North American English]], and as 𐐿𐐫𐐻 ({{IPAc-en|k|ɔː|t}}) in the case of [[Scottish English]]. For those exhibiting both mergers, both would be written 𐐿𐐪𐐻 ({{IPAc-en|k|ɑː|t}}).<ref name="Walker2005">{{Cite book |url=http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/Linguistics/Deseret_Guide.pdf |title=A Complete Guide to Reading and Writing the Deseret Alphabet |website=Joshua Erickson's Deseret Alphabet Pages |last=Walker |first=Neil Alexander |publisher=Lulu.com |year=2005 |isbn=978-1411648654 |pages=26 |access-date=5 March 2014 |archive-date=3 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160803095739/http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/Linguistics/Deseret_Guide.pdf |url-status=live }}{{Self-published source|date=February 2020}}</ref>{{Self-published inline|date=February 2020}}{{rp|28}}

=== Versions === There have been several published versions of the alphabet. Most versions (including the versions used in ''The Deseret First Book'', ''The Deseret Second Book'', ''The Deseret News'' and ''The Book of Mormon'') had only 38 letters, but some versions contained two [[Typographic ligature|ligature]]s, 𐐧 (ew) and 𐐦 (oi).<ref name="Beesley">{{Cite web |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02169-deseret.pdf |title=Proposal to Modify the Encoding of Deseret Alphabet in Unicode |last=Beesley |first=Kenneth R. |date=2002-04-25 |website=Unicode Consortium |publisher=Xerox Research Center Europe |access-date=2017-01-04 |archive-date=14 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190614210322/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02169-deseret.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In place of 𐐮𐐭<ref name=":15">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/deseretfirstbook00univ| title=𐐜 𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻 𐐙𐐲𐑉𐑅𐐻 𐐒𐐳𐐿 |publisher=Deseret University |year=1868 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/deseretfirstbook00univ/page/18 18]|trans-title=The Deseret First Book |quote=For 𐐮𐐭: "𐐜 𐐶𐐩𐑂𐑆 𐑉𐐬𐑊 𐐱𐑌 𐑄 𐐼𐐨𐐹 𐐺𐑊'''𐐮𐐭''' 𐑅𐐨." (The waves roll on the deep bl'''ue''' sea.) |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> or 𐐷𐐭,<ref name="Des2nd"/> 𐑏 was to be used; in place of 𐐱𐐮, 𐑎.<ref name="Des2nd">{{Cite book|url= https://archive.org/details/thedeseretsecond02univ |title=𐐜 𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻 𐐝𐐯𐐿𐐲𐑌𐐼 𐐒𐐳𐐿 |publisher=Deseret University |year=1868 |page=[https://archive.org/details/thedeseretsecond02univ/page/7 7] |trans-title=The Deseret Second Book |quote=For 𐐷𐐭: "𐐐𐐨𐑉 𐐮𐑆 𐐪 𐐸𐐩𐑉. 𐐔𐐮𐐼 '''𐐷𐐭''' 𐐯𐑂𐐯𐑉 𐑅𐐨 𐐶𐐲𐑌?" (Here is a hare. Did '''you''' ever see one?), For 𐐱𐐮: "𐐌 𐐸𐐨𐑉 𐐪 𐑌'''𐐱𐐮'''𐑆!" (I hear a n'''oi'''se!) |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>

In the 23 February 1859 edition of the ''Deseret News'', the editors announced their approval of the two new letters and eventual intention to use them in the newsletter. However, due to the [[hot metal typesetting]] technology in use at the time, casting the new letters for use would have been a considerable expense, so it was never realized.<ref name="Beesley" />

=== Representation of {{IPA|[ə]}} === The Deseret alphabet does not have a distinct symbol for the [[mid central vowel]] ([{{IPA|[[ə]]}}], "schwa"). The lack of a schwa has been cited as the biggest "[[phonological]] flaw" in the alphabet.<ref name="Spendlove2015" /><ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|3}}

[[File:The word broken in MJ Shelton's Deseret handwriting.png|thumb|239x239px |Shelton using his [[schwa]] to handwrite the word "broken" (𐐺𐑉𐐬𐐿ı𐑌) ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|r|oʊ|k|ə|n}}). The standard way to render this word is 𐐺𐑉𐐬𐐿𐑌 ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|b|r|oʊ|k|n}}).]]Because of the lack of a schwa, the author must write the sound that would be used if the syllable was stressed. For example, the word ''enough'' is commonly pronounced {{IPAc-en|ə|ˈ|n|ʌ|f}}, but when it is stressed (as in a declaration of irritation) it is pronounced {{IPAc-en|i|ˈ|n|ʌ|f}}. The Deseret spelling of the word, 𐐨𐑌𐐲𐑁, reflects that stressed pronunciation. If [{{IPA|[[ə]]}}] does not have an inherent stressed value in a word, as is often the case before {{IPAc-en|r}}, then it is written as 𐐲.<ref name="Walker2005" />{{rp|32–33}}

[[Marion Jackson Shelton]],<ref>{{cite web | title=Marion Jackson Shelton | Church History Biographical Database | url=https://history.churchofjesuschrist.org/chd/individual/marion-jackson-shelton-1833?lang=eng }}</ref> an early [[Mormon missionary]], proposed the addition of a new glyph to represent the schwa, a simple vertical line of the same height as other Deseret characters with a similar appearance to the [[Turkish dotless i]] (ı). The addition of this glyph did not catch on among his contemporaries, however, and no document outside of ones penned by Shelton makes use of it.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|19–20}} Shelton used the new glyph in an 1860 letter to Brigham Young reporting on a recently completed mission to the [[Southern Paiute|Paiute people]].<ref>{{Cite letter|last=Shelton|first=Marion J.|url=https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets/ede0344b-fddd-4e93-849e-1ab935f620e8/0/0?lang=eng|date=3 April 1860|title=Beloved brother, it is with heartfelt gratitude to my Heavenly Father...|recipient=Brigham Young}}</ref>

=== Syllabic values === Each letter in the Deseret alphabet has a name, and when a letter is written on its own it has the value of that name. This allows some short words to be written with a single letter, and is called a letter's "syllabic value". The most common word in English, ''the'', is written simply 𐑄, as the letter's name is {{IPAc-en|ð|iː}} and that is the stressed pronunciation of the word. The consonants with syllabic values are 𐐶 (woo), 𐐷 (yee), 𐐸 (ha), 𐐹 (pee), 𐐺 (be/bee), 𐐻 (tee/tea), 𐐽 (qi), 𐐾 (jee), 𐑀 (gay), and 𐑄 (the/thee).<ref name="Walker2005" />{{rp|25}}

Syllabic values do not apply within words, although this was formerly the case. In early documents, Watt writes "people" as 𐐹𐐹𐑊 with the expectation that readers will interpret the first 𐐹 as {{IPAc-en|p|iː}}, but the second 𐐹 as {{IPAc-en|p}}.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|13}} This contextual value switching was soon done away with, so in later documents, while "bee" is written 𐐺, "bees" is written 𐐺𐐨𐑆.

In 40-letter versions of the alphabet which include the letter 𐐧 (ew) which represents {{IPAc-en|j|uː}}, the letter 𐐧 when standing alone can be used to represent the word "you".<ref name="Walker2005" />{{rp|25,51}}

== Examples == * [[File:Deseret Second Book Juvenile Hymn page 23.jpg|thumb|300x300px|[[Hymn]] from the ''Deseret Second Book'', printed in 1868. The first line of the hymn reads "I'll serve the Lord while I am young" (𐐌'𐑊 𐑅𐐲𐑉𐑂 𐑄 𐐢𐐫𐑉𐐼 𐐸𐐶𐐴𐑊 𐐌 𐐰𐑋 𐐷𐐲𐑍), and is pronounced as {{IPAc-en|aɪ|l|_|s|ʌ|r|v|_|ð|(|ə|)|_|l|ɔː|r|d|_|hw|aɪ|l|_|aɪ|_|æ|m|_|j|ʌ|ŋ}}.]]– Hello, how are you? – I'm doing great, thanks! – It was nice seeing you, but I've got to run! Take care! ** – 𐐐𐐯𐑊𐐬, 𐐸𐐵 𐐪𐑉 𐑏? – 𐐌'𐑋 𐐼𐐭𐐮𐑍 𐑀𐑉𐐩𐐻, 𐑃𐐰𐑍𐐿𐑅! – 𐐆𐐻 𐐶𐐲𐑆 𐑌𐐴𐑅 𐑅𐐨𐐨𐑍 𐑏, 𐐺𐐲𐐻 𐐌'𐑂 𐑀𐐪𐐻 𐐻𐐭 𐑉𐐲𐑌! 𐐓𐐩𐐿 𐐿𐐯𐑉! * [[Oil]] floats on [[water]], but [[Mercury (element)|mercury]] sinks below both. This is due to their [[multiphasic liquid|relative densities]]. ** [[Oil|𐐦𐑊]] 𐑁𐑊𐐬𐐻𐑅 𐐪𐑌 [[water|𐐶𐐫𐐻𐐲𐑉]], 𐐺𐐲𐐻 [[Mercury (element)|𐑋𐐲𐑉𐐿𐐷𐐲𐑉𐐨]] 𐑅𐐮𐑍𐐿𐑅 𐐺𐐮𐑊𐐬 𐐺𐐬𐑃. 𐐜𐐮𐑅 𐐮𐑆 𐐼𐐭 𐐻𐐭 𐑄𐐯𐑉 [[Multiphasic liquid|𐑉𐐯𐑊𐐲𐐻𐐮𐑂 𐐼𐐯𐑌𐑅𐐮𐐻𐐨𐑆]]. The first lesson in the ''Deseret First Book'' reads simply:<ref name=":15" />{{Verse translation|{{Line-height|120%|'''LESSON I.'''

I am in. As we go. On to it. }}|{{Line-height|80%|'''𐐢𐐇𐐝𐐤 I.'''

𐐌 𐐰𐑋 𐐮𐑌. 𐐈𐑆 𐐶𐐨 𐑀𐐬. 𐐉𐑌 𐐻𐐭 𐐮𐐻. }}}}

In the ''Deseret Second Book'', there is a version of ''[[Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star]]'' on page 19:<ref name="Des2nd" />{{Verse translation|{{Line-height|120%|'''LESSON XVI.''' '''The Little Star'''

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are. Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is set, And the grass with dew is wet, Then you show your little light; Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then if I were in the dark, I would thank you for your spark; I could not see which way to go, If you did not twinkle so.

And when I am sound asleep, Oft you through my window peep, For you never shut your eye Til the sun is in the sky.}}|{{Line-height|80%|'''𐐢𐐇𐐝𐐤 XVI.''' '''𐐜 𐐢𐐮𐐻𐑊 𐐝𐐻𐐪𐑉.'''

𐐓𐐶𐐮𐑍𐐿𐑊, 𐐻𐐶𐐮𐑍𐐿𐑊, 𐑊𐐮𐐻𐑊 𐑅𐐻𐐪𐑉, 𐐐𐐵 𐐌 𐐶𐐲𐑌𐐼𐐯𐑉 𐐸𐐶𐐱𐐻 𐐷𐐭 𐐪𐑉. 𐐊𐐹 𐐰𐐺𐐲𐑂 𐑄 𐐶𐐲𐑉𐑊𐐼 𐑅𐐬 𐐸𐐴, 𐐢𐐴𐐿 𐐪 𐐼𐐴𐑋𐐲𐑌𐐼 𐐮𐑌 𐑄 𐑅𐐿𐐴.

𐐐𐐶𐐯𐑌 𐑄 𐐺𐑊𐐩𐑆𐐮𐑍 𐑅𐐲𐑌 𐐮𐑆 𐑅𐐯𐐻, 𐐈𐑌𐐼 𐑄 𐑀𐑉𐐪𐑅 𐐶𐐮𐑄 𐐼𐐮𐐭 𐐮𐑆 𐐶𐐯𐐻, 𐐜𐐯𐑌 𐐷𐐭 𐑇𐐬 𐐷𐐭𐑉 𐑊𐐮𐐻𐑊 𐑊𐐴𐐻; 𐐓𐐶𐐮𐑍𐐿𐑊, 𐐻𐐶𐐮𐑍𐐿𐑊, 𐐫𐑊 𐑄 𐑌𐐴𐐻.

𐐜𐐯𐑌 𐐮𐑁 𐐌 𐐶𐐲𐑉 𐐮𐑌 𐑄 𐐼𐐪𐑉𐐿, 𐐌 𐐶𐐳𐐼 𐑃𐐰𐑍𐐿 𐐷𐐭 𐑁𐐫𐑉 𐐷𐐭𐑉 𐑅𐐹𐐪𐑉𐐿; 𐐌 𐐿𐐳𐐼 𐑌𐐱𐐻 𐑅𐐨 𐐸𐐶𐐮𐐽 𐐶𐐩 𐐻𐐭 𐑀𐐬, 𐐆𐑁 𐐷𐐭 𐐼𐐮𐐼 𐑌𐐱𐐻 𐐻𐐶𐐮𐑍𐐿𐑊 𐑅𐐬.

𐐈𐑌𐐼 𐐸𐐶𐐯𐑌 𐐌 𐐰𐑋 𐑅𐐵𐑌𐐼 𐐰𐑅𐑊𐐨𐐹, 𐐉𐑁𐐻 𐐷𐐭 𐑃𐑉𐐭 𐑋𐐴 𐐶𐐮𐑌𐐼𐐬 𐐹𐐨𐐹, 𐐙𐐫𐑉 𐐷𐐭 𐑌𐐯𐑂𐐯𐑉 𐑇𐐲𐐻 𐐷𐐭𐑉 𐐴 𐐓𐐮𐑊 𐑄 𐑅𐐲𐑌 𐐮𐑆 𐐮𐑌 𐑄 𐑅𐐿𐐴.}}}}

== Handwriting == There were two main handwritten forms of the Deseret alphabet: a [[cursive]] version and a [[Block letters|printed]] version. Over the lifetime of the alphabet, the cursive form fell out of favor among most users of the alphabet and by 1856 no more cursive documents exist.<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|21}} Its impact on the [[glyph]]s can however still be plainly seen in the loops of certain characters such as 𐑅, 𐑀 and 𐐼.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|13}} The earliest surviving versions of the Deseret alphabet, from 1853 (one year before its January 1854 approval), have printed and cursive forms side-by-side, suggesting that a cursive form was part of the plan from the very beginning.<ref>University of Deseret papers: New alphabet file, circa 1853. Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah (Call number MS 4223 – you can see the digital object on https://history.lds.org {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190522183656/https://history.lds.org/ |date=22 May 2019 }} )</ref>

=== Cursive === [[File:Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia written in Deseret cursive.svg|thumb|239x239px|Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit 𐐎𐐮𐐿𐐨𐐹𐐨𐐼𐐨𐐲, 𐑄 𐑁𐑉𐐨 𐐯𐑌𐑅𐐴𐐿𐑊𐐬𐐹𐐨𐐼𐐨𐐲 𐑄𐐰𐐻 𐐯𐑌𐐨𐐶𐐲𐑌 𐐿𐐰𐑌 𐐯𐐼𐐮𐐻]] The cursive form of the Deseret alphabet was mainly used by two people: George D. Watt, and James Henry Martineau.<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|21}} Watt, a [[stenographer]], recorded several bishops meetings and wrote other personal documents in this cursive style.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|13}} A chart of the cursive form appears below. The blue glyphs represent how to write each character, while the top row of printed glyphs shows the corresponding Unicode reference glyph.

[[File:Early Deseret cursive lineup based on a document written by its creator George D Watt.svg|border|frameless|class=skin-invert|600x600px]]

The cursive style has many unorthodox characteristics uncommon to [[alphabet|alphabetic writing systems]]. [[Vowel]]s can be dropped if the writer is in a hurry and feels the word is obvious as in an [[abjad]], letters can be written above or below the base line depending on what precedes them, and 𐐮 is placed on letters after they are already written as in an [[abugida]]. Furthermore, unlike the typeset alphabet, the cursive alphabet has no letter case. These characteristics could have arisen because Watt was a local expert in [[Pitman shorthand]], which is written in a similar way.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|13}}

The table below shows some examples of how the cursive form is written. Dropped vowels are marked in parentheses.

[[File:Deseret cursive examples based on the Mormon bishops meeting minutes recorded by George D Watt.svg|border|frameless|class=skin-invert|539x539px]]

=== Block letters === George D. Watt found his own alphabet cumbersome to write and abandoned it. As he wrote to Brigham Young on 21 August 1854:<ref name="Watt1977">{{Cite journal|last=Watt|first=Ronald G.|date=1977-01-01|title=Sailing "The Old Ship Zion": The Life of George D. Watt|jstor=43042710|journal=Brigham Young University Studies|volume=18|issue=1|pages=48–65}}</ref><ref>[https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets?id=29ac45ca-71bd-40de-9ab7-2c476a4cbb1d&crate=0&index=1 Brigham Young office files, 1832–1878 (bulk 1844–1877); General Correspondence, Incoming, 1840–1877; General Letters, 1840–1877; T-W, 1854; George D. Watt letter (Identifier CR 1234 1).] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511191922/https://catalog.churchofjesuschrist.org/assets?id=29ac45ca-71bd-40de-9ab7-2c476a4cbb1d&crate=0&index=1 |date=11 May 2021 }} Church History Library, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah</ref>{{Blockquote|text=Dear Bro. I herein submit for your examination the result of much thought and extensive practice on the new alphabet since the Board of Regents last met. '''I candidly confess that I never did like the present construction of the alphabet.''' I was not left as free as I could have wished to be in the construction of it. [...] I am now thoroughly convinced that it is not the most expeditious method of writing and printing, but on the contrary it retards the hand in its onward course.|sign=|source=}} His new alphabet closely resembled an 1853 publication of Isaac Pitman, containing only 33 letters. However, at this point, Young was still enamored with the original Deseret alphabet, and so he rejected the proposal and Watt continued to publicly promote the alphabet as part of his job despite his reservations.<ref name="Watt1977" /> [[File:Fragment of Marion Shelton's Hopi dictionary.jpg|thumb|A fragment of Marion Shelton's Hopi dictionary, the source of his handwriting. This section shows translations into the [[Hopi language]] ([[Orayvi|Orayvi dialect]]) for words that start with the English phoneme {{IPAc-en|oʊ}}.]] After 1855, no more cursive documents appear, and all surviving journals are written in block letters.<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|21}} Marion J. Shelton, an early Mormon missionary who wrote a dictionary of the Hopi language in the alphabet, was a "typical" 40-letter Deseret writer,<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|19}} and his style of writing is shown below.

[[File:Early Deseret printed handwritten lineup based on a document written by Mormon pioneer Marion J. Shelton.svg|border|frameless|class=skin-invert|600x600px]]

== Design criticism == {{Multiple image | align = | direction = | width = | footer = | image1 = Bookofmormdeseretalpha00 0224 (cropped).png | width1 = 988 | caption1 = Text from the [[Book of Alma]] | image2 = Bilge Khagan inscription lines 36-40 in original Old Turkic script.svg | width2 = 870 | caption2 = Old Turkic inscription | total_width = 360 | height1 = 1386 | height2 = 1461 }}

The Deseret alphabet was purposely designed so as to not have [[ascender (typography)|ascenders]] and [[descender]]s.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|14}} This was envisioned as a practical benefit for the alphabet in an era of metal type: after many uses, the edges of [[sort (typesetting)|type sorts]] become dull, and narrow ascenders and descenders are most prone to this effect.<ref name="Beesley2004" />

While well intentioned, this lack has been described as a "catastrophic" mistake<ref>Nash, William V. (1957) ''The Deseret Alphabet''. Master's thesis, University of Illinois Library School: Urbana, Illinois</ref> that makes type look "monotonous"<ref name="Wentz1978" /> and makes all words look alike.<ref name="Simmonds1968" /> Some have joked that this aesthetic quality could cause the new alphabet to be mistaken from afar for a [[Turkey|Turkish]] [[Ledger|tax list]].<ref name="Simmonds1968" /><ref name="Zobell1967" />

The Mormon pioneers were apparently aware of the problems caused by its monotony:<ref name="Moore2006" />{{rp|76}} {{Blockquote|text=President Young has decided that [the letters] are not so well adapted for the purpose designed as it was hoped they would be. There being no shanks (ascenders or descenders) to the letters, all being very even, they are trying to the eye, because of their uniformity.|sign=|source=article in the ''Juvenile Instructor'', 2 October 1875|style=overflow:inherit;}} Other criticism of the design was harsher still. In an 18 December 1857 editorial in the ''Boston Globe'', the alphabet was described as being "so arranged and named as to cause the greatest possible annoyance to outsiders" and the design of the letters as "incomprehensible as [...] the [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|hieroglyphics]] of the [...] [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptians]]."<ref name="Schindler1998">{{Cite book|title=In Another Time: Sketches of Utah History |last=Schindler |first=Harold |publisher=Utah State University Press |year=1998 |isbn=9780874212426 |location=Logan, Utah |pages=125–127 }}</ref> On 4 March 1872, ''The New York Times'' called the alphabet "rude, awkward and cumbersome".<ref name=":12" />

Some modern computer fonts and printed books have attempted to correct this perceived fault: in the books in John Jenkins' ''Deseret Alphabet Classics'' series, the font used adds a descender to 𐑉 and 𐐻 and an ascender to 𐐼 and 𐑇 among other tweaks.<ref>{{Cite book|title=𐐜 𐐓𐐴𐑋 𐐣𐐲𐑇𐐨𐑌|last=Wells|first=H. G.|date=2013-06-14|others=adapted by John Jenkins|isbn=9781482742404|pages=iii–iv|publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |language=en|trans-title=The Time Machine}}</ref>

== Other motives == Officially, the Deseret alphabet was created to simplify the spelling of English words for the benefit of children and [[English as a second language]] learners. Some of the alphabet's contemporaries, however, posited an alternative motivation for its development: increasing the [[isolationism|isolation]] of the early Mormons.

=== Restricting access to religious texts and internal communications === The charge that the Deseret alphabet's main purpose was to keep outsiders in the dark was brought almost immediately, as evidenced by the following 1858 ''[[Lyttelton Times]]'' reprint of an unnamed "New York newspaper":<ref name=":11" />{{Blockquote|text={{Small-caps|Mormon Secretiveness}}.—The new "Deseret Alphabet" is completed, and a fount of [[pica (typography)|pica]] type has been cast in St. Louis. [[Type specimen|Specimens]] of the type are published in the St. Louis papers, but they are unproducible in types that common people use [...] The [[wikt:en:ukase|ukase]]s of Brother Brigham will hereafter be a sealed letter, literally, to Gentile eyes.|sign=|source=}} Having obtained a copy of the ''Deseret News'' in 1859, the ''Richmond Dispatch'' disparaged it on April 25, writing "The ''Deseret News'' is filled with a lot of hieroglyphs. It seems to be [an alphabet] which the Mormons alone are to be taught."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/79767205/?terms=Deseret+alphabet|title=Later from Utah|date=25 April 1859|newspaper=Richmond Dispatch|page=1|language=en|url-access=subscription|access-date=2017-01-24|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=2 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202024723/https://www.newspapers.com/image/79767205/?terms=Deseret+alphabet|url-status=live}}</ref>

However, some modern historians doubt the veracity of this theory.<ref name="Moore2006" /><ref name="Wentz1978" /> For one, notes Kenneth R. Beesley, the ''Deseret News'' and every book published in the alphabet prominently features the key to the alphabet,<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|36}} and anyone without a key could have gotten a copy of ''A Journey to Great-Salt-Lake City'', or traveled to Salt Lake City themselves and bought one.<ref name="Moore2006" /> Contemporary scholars [[Richard F. Burton]] and [[Jules Remy]] also dismissed the secrecy argument, in 1860 and 1855 respectively.<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|36}}

=== Limitations on exposure to external publications among early Latter-day Saints === With the impending completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, Mormons would have easy, cheap access to publications from the east, including [[yellow-back|yellowbacks]], [[penny dreadful]]s, [[pulp magazine]]s, and other, often scandalous or "dirty" publications, that were rising to prominence in the 19th century. In an article about the benefits of the alphabet, the ''Deseret News'' proudly wrote:<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2601635#t_2601635|title=The Deseret Alphabet{{Emdash}}Its Advantages|date=18 August 1868|work=Deseret News|page=2|access-date=2017-01-16|via=University of Utah: Utah Digital Newspapers|archive-date=29 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729221333/https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2601635#t_2601635|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Blockquote|text=If our community were situated as others are, it might be [[Don Quixote|Quixotic]] to attempt the introduction of this reform among us with the hope of carrying it into practical operation. But our position is unique, we are united. [...] Some have an idea that if a child be educated in the system of spelling and writing by sound it will be a detriment to it in learning the present system. [...] '''If they could find no better reading than much of the miserable trash that now obtains extensive circulation, it would be better if they never learned to read the present orthography.''' In such a case ignorance would be blissful. [...] The greatest evils which now flourish and under which Christendom groans are directly traceable to the licentiousness of the press.|sign=|source="The Deseret Alphabet{{Emdash}}Its Advantages", 19 August 1868, ''Deseret News''}} In another article, the ''Deseret News'' cited an example of the kind of literature Mormons would benefit from not being able to read: ''[[The Police Gazette]]''.<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|35}} Historians A. J. Simmonds and Roby Wentz contend that while this may have been a tertiary goal of the alphabet, a sort of "happy accident", the main purpose of it was simple orthographic reform.<ref name="Simmonds1968" /><ref name="Spendlove2015" /> Simmonds notes that the teaching of English to foreigners was not a mere hypothetical to mask isolationist tendencies: 35% of the [[Utah Territory]]'s population at the time was [[Scandinavia]]n, with [[German language|German]], [[Italian language|Italian]] and [[Welsh language|Welsh]] speaking people also making up a considerable percentage of inhabitants; therefore, communication between the recently [[Baptism in Mormonism|baptized]] and the community was a real problem.<ref name="Simmonds1968" />

== Encodings == {{Main|Deseret (Unicode block)}} [[File:Deseret glyphs ew and oi transformation from 1855 to 1859.svg|thumb|Between 1855 and 1859, the way most people wrote the glyphs 𐑏 and 𐑎 changed, causing encoding problems when attempting to transcribe documents using the latter glyphs with Unicode.<ref name="Beesley2004"/>]]

The Deseret alphabet (U+10400–U+1044F) was added to the [[Unicode]] Standard in March 2001 with the release of version 3.1, after a request by John H. Jenkins of [[Apple Inc.|Apple]], making it one of the first scripts to be added outside of the [[Basic Multilingual Plane]].<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|6}} The letters 𐐧 (ew) and 𐐦 (oi) were added to the Unicode Standard in April 2003 with the release of version 4.0.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/Public/4.0-Update/UnicodeData-4.0.0.txt|title=The Unicode Standard, version 4.0: UnicodeData-4.0.0.txt|website=The Unicode Consortium|access-date=2017-01-25}}</ref>

According to Kenneth R. Beesley, who submitted the proposal to expand the encoding,<ref name="Beesley" /> "Unicode fonts based on the current heterogeneous collection of [[glyph]]s will be useless for any practical [[typesetting]] of 40-letter Deseret Alphabet documents."<ref name="Beesley2004">{{Cite book|last=Beesley|first=Kenneth R.|title=TeX, XML, and Digital Typography |chapter=Typesetting the Deseret Alphabet with LaTeX and metafont |year=2004|chapter-url=http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/Ken%20Beesley/Typesetting%20the%20Deseret%20Alphabet%20with%20LATEX%20and%20METAFONT.pdf |journal=[[TUGboat]]|series=Lecture Notes in Computer Science|publisher=[[TeX Users Group]]|volume=25|issue=[[Zero indexing|0]]|pages=68–111|doi=10.1007/978-3-540-27773-6_7|isbn=978-3-540-22801-1|access-date=12 January 2017|archive-date=9 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170509044613/http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/Ken%20Beesley/Typesetting%20the%20Deseret%20Alphabet%20with%20LATEX%20and%20METAFONT.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|29}} This is because the Unicode Consortium chose to use glyphs from 1855 as the reference glyphs, while by 1859 those glyphs were already outmoded and replaced with newer glyphs. Beesley thus recommends using [[LaTeX]] along with his [[Metafont]] {{Monospace|desalph}} font to typeset Deseret text,<ref name="Beesley2004" /> but [[font]]s which use the alternate glyphs for the two codepoints in question would also work for transcription of 40-letter Deseret texts written during and after 1859.

{{Unicode chart Deseret}} On 25 February 2016, the [[Library of Congress]] approved an [[ALA-LC romanization]] for the Deseret alphabet.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/deseret.pdf|title=ALA-LC Deseret Romanization table|website=[[Library of Congress]]|access-date=26 February 2016|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304131316/https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/deseret.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The table can be used to display approximations of titles in non-Latin scripts using the [[Latin alphabet]] for use in library catalogs that do not support non-Latin alphabets.

== See also == {{Portal|Latter Day Saint movement}} * [[International Phonetic Alphabet]]

== Notes == {{notelist}}

== References == {{smalldiv|1={{ordered list|list_style_type=upper-alpha| {{Cite book|url=https://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/lds-scriptures/book-of-mormon/book-of-mormon-34406-eng.pdf|title=Book of Mormon|publisher=[[Intellectual Reserve, Inc.]] for [[Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]]|year=2013|location=[[Salt Lake City]]|access-date=21 June 2020|archive-date=28 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201028050409/https://media.ldscdn.org/pdf/lds-scriptures/book-of-mormon/book-of-mormon-34406-eng.pdf|url-status=live|ref={{harvid|Book of Mormon}}}}}}}} {{Reflist|30em}}

== Further reading == {{Refbegin}} * Bigler, David. 1998. ''Forgotten kingdom: the Mormon theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896''. Spokane: Arthur Clark * Ivins, Stanley S. 1947. The Deseret Alphabet. ''Utah Humanities Review'' 1:223–239. * Lynott, Patricia A. 1999. "Communicating Insularity: The Deseret Alphabet of Nineteenth-Century Mormon Education." ''American Educational History Journal'' 26 (1):20–26. * McMurrin, Sterling M. 2000. ''The Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion'', Signature Books, Salt Lake City, {{ISBN|978-1-56085-135-6}} * Thompson, Roger. 1982. "Language planning in frontier America: The case of the Deseret Alphabet". ''Language Problems and Language Planning'' 6:45–62. *{{Citation | last = Watt | first = Ronald G. | title = Utah History Encyclopedia | publisher = University of Utah Press | year = 1994 | chapter = The Deseret Alphabet | chapter-url = https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/d/DESERET_ALPHABET.shtml | url = https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/ | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240321165638/https://www.uen.org/utah_history_encyclopedia/d/DESERET_ALPHABET.shtml | archive-date = March 21, 2024 | isbn =9780874804256 | access-date = April 16, 2024}} * Wintersteen, Larry Ray. 1970. [https://search.lib.byu.edu/byu/record/sa.etd-6219?holding=pmpr99qht2qo6o1m ''A History of the Deseret Alphabet''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125014232/https://search.lib.byu.edu/byu/record/sa.etd-6219?holding=pmpr99qht2qo6o1m |date=25 January 2022 }}. MA thesis, Brigham Young University. * {{Citation |last1=Young |first1=Brigham |contribution=Southern Missions—Deseret Alphabet—Relief Societies—Home Manufactures |date=October 8, 1868 |title=Journal of Discourses Volume 12 By President Brigham Young, his two Counsellors, and the Twelve Apostles |volume=12 |place=Liverpool |publisher=Albert Carrington |pages=297–301 |contribution-url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Journal_of_Discourses/Volume_12/Southern_Missions%2C_etc. |ref=none |access-date=20 February 2008 |archive-date=31 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110831113058/http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Journal_of_Discourses/Volume_12/Southern_Missions%2C_etc. |url-status=live }}. {{Refend}}

==External links== {{commons category}}

* [https://blog.nyhistory.org/mormon-alphabet-experiment/ The Mormon Alphabet Experiment | "From the Stacks" at New-York Historical Society] * [https://www.deseretalphabet.org/ M. Scott Reynolds' Deseret alphabet portal] * [http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/index.html Joshua Erickson's Deseret alphabet pages] * [https://www.omniglot.com/writing/deseret.htm The Deseret Alphabet at Omniglot] * [https://2deseret.com/ Deseret Alphabet Translator] — {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220003725/http://2deseret.com/ |date=20 December 2017 }}. Converts standard orthography to Deseret alphabet and vice versa * [https://zaphod.neocities.org/deseretipa.html Deseret to IPA converter] — Converts Deseret input to the International Phonetic Alphabet

[[Category:1854 establishments in Utah Territory]] [[Category:1854 introductions]] [[Category:Alphabets]] [[Category:Auxiliary and educational artificial scripts]] [[Category:English orthography]] [[Category:English spelling reform]] [[Category:History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] [[Category:Phonetic alphabets]] [[Category:University of Utah]] [[Category:Writing systems introduced in the 19th century]] [[Category:Writing systems of the Americas]]