Deseret alphabet

Deseret alphabet
๐”๐ฏ๐‘…๐จ๐‘‰๐ฏ๐ป
Script type
Alphabet
CreatorGeorge D. Watt, under the direction of the Board of Regents, led by Brigham Young
Published
1854
Period
Mainly 1854โ€“1869; some use in modern era
DirectionLeft-to-right 
LanguagesEnglish
Related scripts
Parent systems
Egyptian hieroglyphs
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Dsrt (250), โ€‹Deseret (Mormon)
Unicode
Unicode alias
Deseret
Unicode range
U+10400โ€“U+1044F

The Deseret alphabet (/หŒdษ›zษ™หˆrษ›t/ โ“˜;[1] Deseret: ๐”๐ฏ๐‘…๐จ๐‘‰๐ฏ๐ป /dษ›หˆsi:ษนษ›t/[2] or ๐”๐ฏ๐‘†๐ฒ๐‘‰๐ฏ๐ป[3]) is a phonemic English-language spelling reform developed between 1847 and 1854 by the board of regents of the University of Deseret[4] under the leadership of Brigham Young, the second president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).[5] George D. Watt is reported to have been the most actively involved in the development of the script's novel characters,[5][6][7]:โ€Š159โ€Š which were used to replace those of the 1847 version of Isaac Pitman's English phonotypic alphabet. He was also the "New Alphabet's" first serious user.[8][9]:โ€Š12โ€Š The script gets its name from the word deseret, a hapax legomenon in the Book of Mormon, which is said to mean "honeybee" in the only verse it is used in.[10]

The Deseret alphabet was an outgrowth of the Restorationist idealism and utopianism of Young and the early LDS Church. Young and the Mormon pioneers believed "all aspects of life" were in need of reform for the imminent Millennium,[11][12] and the Deseret alphabet was just one of many ways in which they sought to bring about a complete "transformation in society,"[7]:โ€Š142โ€Š in anticipation of the Second Coming of Jesus.[13] Young wrote of the reform that "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.[14][15][16]

In public statements, Young claimed the alphabet would replace the traditional Latin alphabet with an alternative, more 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.[5]:โ€Š65โ€“66โ€Š 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."[17]

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 ๐๐ฌ๐‘Š๐จ๐‘Œ๐ฎ๐‘… ๐ป๐ญ ๐‘„ ๐ข๐ซ๐‘‰๐ผ (Holiness to the Lord). In 1868โ€“9, after much difficulty creating suitable fonts,[7] four books were printed: two school primers, the full Book of Mormon, and a first portion of it, intended as a third school reader.[18]

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.[5][9][19][20][21] However, in recent years, aided by digital typography, the Deseret alphabet has been revived as a cultural heirloom.[22][23]

Similar neographies have been attempted, the most well-known of which for English is the Shavian alphabet.[24]

  1. ^ Book of Mormon, p. 534, "Pronunciation Guide". Converted to IPA from dฤ•z-a-rฤ•tโ€ฒ according to key on p. 533.
  2. ^ University of Deseret (1868). [The Deseret second book. Harold B. Lee Library. [Salt Lake City : The University].
  3. ^ "Deseret alphabet". www.omniglot.com. Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  4. ^ Arrington, Leonard J. (2012). Brigham Young : American Moses. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 353โ€“8. ISBN 978-0-345-80321-4. OCLC 779877565.
  5. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference Moore2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Wentz, Roby (1978). 38 Mormon Characters: A Forgotten Chapter in Western Typographic History (PDF). Los Angeles, California. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 January 2017. Retrieved 7 January 2017.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. ^ a b c Watt, Ronald G. (2009). The Mormon Passage of George D. Watt: First British Convert, Scribe for Zion. Logan, Utah: Utah State University Press. ISBN 9780874217582. Retrieved 25 January 2022.
  8. ^ "The New Alphabet". Deseret News. 19 January 1854.
  9. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Beesley2004 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ Book of Mormon, p. 489. Ether 2:3: 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.
    [emphasis added]
  11. ^ Underwood, Grant (1993). The millenarian world of early Mormonism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 6. ISBN 0-252-02037-5. OCLC 27643026.
  12. ^ Mauss, Armand L. (1994). The angel and the beehive : the Mormon struggle with assimilation. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 188. ISBN 0-252-02071-5. OCLC 28333190.
  13. ^ LDS Tenth Article of Faith
  14. ^ Dunn, Scott (26 March 1982). "The Tongue of Angels?: Glossolalia in the Mormon Church". Deseret Language and Linguistic Society Symposium. 8 (1): 38.
  15. ^ Young, Brigham (29 November 1858). "1858 November 29 Letter to Frederick Edward Schonfield". Brigham Young Papers;The Brigham Young Center.
  16. ^ The Pearl of Great Price, Moses 6:5โ€“6
  17. ^ Young, Brigham (8 October 1868). Journal of Discourses. Vol. 12. delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, UT. p. 289.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  18. ^ Morgan, Dale L. (2012). Dale Morgan on the Mormons: Collected Works, Part 1, 1939โ€“1951. Norman, OK: Arthur Clark. p. 210. ISBN 978-0-87062-416-2.
  19. ^ Cite error: The named reference Zobell1967 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ Cite error: The named reference Simmonds1968 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Spendlove, Loren Blake (1 January 2015). "Say Now Shibboleth, or Maybe Cumorah". Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture. 15. Archived from the original on 9 July 2015. Retrieved 8 July 2015.
  22. ^ "Deseret Alphabet Translator". 2deseret.com. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
  23. ^ "Illinois Deseret Consortium". faculty.las.illinois.edu. Retrieved 12 April 2023.
  24. ^ Drucker, Johanna (1995). The Alphabetic Labyrinth: The Letters in History and Imagination. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 9780500280683.
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