Deseret alphabet

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The Deseret alphabet is a phonetic alphabet developed in the mid-19th century by the board of regents of the University of Deseret (later the University of Utah) under the direction of Brigham Young, second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The alphabet was intended to replace the traditional Latin alphabet with an alternate, more phonetically accurate alphabet for the English language. This would offer immigrants an opportunity to learn to read and write English, which is often less phonetically consistent than many other languages. Similar experiments were not uncommon during the period, and some of the more well known results include Pitman Shorthand and (much later) the Shavian alphabet.

Another goal in creating the Deseret Alphabet was to offer all faithful Mormons a unifying script that might encourage a sense of community among recent European converts, as well as a higher sense of difference from non-Mormons.

Contrary to what some people believe, the Deseret Alphabet was never considered to be the same as the reformed Egyptian characters in which the original Book of Mormon was written.

[edit] Development and use

Sample from the Deseret Second Book, printed in 1868. The first three (and part of the fourth) words read "One of the worst habit..." (The first four words phonetically read "Wu-o-en ah-vee thee wu-o-er-es-tee")

The Deseret Alphabet was developed primarily by a committee made up of the university's board of regents and church leaders Parley P. Pratt and Heber C. Kimball. The two main contributors to the alphabet's character development were Pratt and George D. Watt, a local expert on shorthand systems.

The alphabet went through at least three major revisions during its first few years. At least four books were published in the new alphabet (The First Deseret Alphabet Reader, The Second Deseret Alphabet Reader, The Book of Mormon, and an excerpt called First Nephi-Omni) as well various articles and New Testament passages published in the Deseret News on a press obtained by Orson Pratt, who estimated that the cost of printing a regular library would be over one million dollars.

Although heavily publicized by the Deseret News, and promoted by Brigham Young, the alphabet never became widely accepted, and fell into disuse about twenty-five years after its creation. Contemporary reports showed most Utahns were reluctant to abandon the conventional Roman alphabet for everyday matters.

Shortly after Brigham Young's death in 1877, his successor, John Taylor, ended all official funding and publicity for the alphabet. Scholars argue that associated expenses were among the major reasons for the alphabet's failure.

Surviving material printed in the Deseret Alphabet can sell for considerable sums among modern collectors of Mormon antiques.

[edit] Table of Glyphs

The Unicode Standard version 3.1 includes the Deseret alphabet in positions 10400 to 1044F; version 4.0 adds the letters Oi and Ew. (Most combinations of operating systems, Web browsers, and installed font sets will not be able to display this table correctly; browsers that do handle it properly include Safari, Camino, and Firefox running under Mac OS X 10.3.9 and higher.)

[edit] See also

• Cherokee alphabet

[edit] External links

• Unicode Code Chart, 10400-1044F (Deseret), retrieved from http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U10400.pdf
• Colorado History page
• The Deseret Alphabet at Omniglot
• Brigham Young’s Deseret Alphabetde:Deseret-Alphabet