According to brigham young university professor richard g. The provisional state existed for slightly over two years and was never recognized by the united states government. Deseret alphabet classics the deseret alphabet classics series provides deseret alphabet editions of some of the great works of english literature and lds theology. In the chart below, the glyph is the letter shape, and next to it is the letters name, which is how it soun. The book of mormon in deseret alphabet library of congress. The deseret alphabet a phonetic alphabet used briefly in early utahis represented on what looks like an antique book in some foreign script. Like noah webster and other early americans who studied language, brigham young objected to sounding the letter a differently in the spellings of mate, father, fall, man, and many. Scott reynolds four books were published in the late 1860s using the deseret alphabet, deseret first and second book readers, the book of nephi part 1 1st nephi through the words of mormon, and then the entire book of mormon. The phonetic deseret alphabet was developed to assist in this cause. This book is in the deseret alphabet, a phonetic alphabet for writing english developed in the mid19th century at the it is held to be canonical by the church of jesus christ of. The primers were used in some schools in utah, but the alphabet was never widely adopted. Mormon primer completely in the deseret alphabet, a phonetic alphabet for mormons to enable anyone to read their books.
A history of the deseret alphabet by larry ray wintersteen. Alphabet has enjoyed a bit of a resurgence as of late, and those who have rediscovered this nearly forgotten chapter in mormon history are eager to see its use become more widely spread. The deseret alphabet consists of 38 letters to account for alternate pronunciations of english vowels and some consonants. Originally there were only 4 works printed in the deseret alphabet. The mormon alphabet experiment newyork historical society. This experiment was intended to alleviate the problem of noncommunication which was created by the great influx of foreign speaking saints into the great salt lake valley.
The alphabet was created by brigham youngs direction as an attempt to make the english language less. Teachers taught the alphabet in the school system at the time. Jun 21, 2017 the deseret alphabet, a 38letter writing system developed by mormons copy link facebook twitter reddit flipboard pocket the opening pages of an 1869 copy of the book of mormon, printed in deseret. Start with 8 free ebooks and access to over 200 other free titles. A group of leaders called the board of regents created it. The deseret alphabet experiment lasted roughly from 1853 to 1877. The deseret alphabet was devised as an alternative to the latin alphabet for writing the english language. Beesley and dirk elzinga did commendable work and a valuable service in producing the book an 1860 englishhopi vocabulary written in the deseret alphabet.
The church history library and the internet archive recently made available a complete scanned copy of the 1869 deseret alphabet edition of the book of mormon here. A bit of research led me to a strange footnote to mormon history. Four books were published in the deseret language, including two readers for learning the language, a selection of the book of mormon, and the entirety of the book of mormon. In the deseret alphabet, capital letters majuscule or upper case look the same as the lower case minuscule letters, except the capital letters are larger. Jenkins and his deseret alphabet classics series, many more works are now available in the deseret alphabet. Discover lds genealogy in a new light with family history keepsake journals, generation pedigree charts, and family history beginner kits. My first published paper was in regard to the deseret alphabet, and i have copies of each of the books published in the deseret alphabet. In 1869, deseret university published tenthousand copies of each of two textbooks, deseret first book and deseret. These readers were designed to help the saints transition into this new alphabet with simple sentence structures and plots. But authors beesley and elzinga have now traced the manuscripts origin to the missionaries of 185960 and decoded its hopienglish vocabulary written in the shortlived deseret alphabet. Our goal is to encourage the use of the deseret alphabet by making worthwhile reading material widely available. The name derives from the word for honeybee in the book of mormon.
The deseret alphabet, a 38letter writing system developed. Typesetting the deseret alphabet with latexandmetafont. 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. Dirk elzinga, associate professor of english language and linguistics, has partnered with beesley to coauthor an 1860 englishhopi vocabulary written in the deseret alphabet. The deseret alphabet faded out of use by 1875, and the book of mormon was never translated into hopi, but a suspected indian vocabulary of almost 500 words, written completely in the deseret alphabet, survived unidentified in the archives of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. In 1859 and 1860 the board began to prepare a dictionary, and brigham young had the manuscript history of the church written in the deseret alphabet. For more information about the deseret alphabet, see the deseret alphabet portal. The final version of the deseret alphabet utilized thirtyeight characters corresponding to sounds of english. Deseret alphabet simple english wikipedia, the free. The duos book aims to document haskell and sheltons four months among the hopi, detail the history of the deseret alphabet, describe the hopi language and its. The project cost the early saints over twenty thousand dollars, a large sum in those days. Ultimately, other books were printed such as selections from the book of mormon, a christmas carol and a few other popular books. The advantages of this alphabet will soon be realized, especially by foreigners.
The deseret alphabet concerned that many of the new pioneers entering the valley from foreign nations had little or no skill with english, brigham young. Featured texts all books all texts latest this just in smithsonian libraries fedlink us genealogy lincoln collection. The deseret alphabet, a 38letter writing system developed by. The app that gives you access to the largest ebook and audiobook library for latterday saints. The deseret alphabet was an experiment used to teach mormon converts a new phonetic spelling system. An 1860 englishhopi vocabulary written in the deseret. A history of the deseret alphabet byu scholarsarchive. The deseret alphabet among the hopi byu college of. It was developed during the 1850s at the university of deseret, now the university of utah, and was promoted by the church of jesus christ of latterday saints, also known as the mormon or lds church, under church president brigham young 18011877. Featured texts all books all texts latest this just in smithsonian. The deseret alphabet is a beautiful part of our heritage, and remains a shining example of mormon innovation and ingenuity. Originally published in 1868, this 1996 reprint is an affordable way to own a piece of utahs history.
The book of mormon printed in the deseret alphabet. Deseret first book deseret alphabet historic reprint. Brigham young wanted all letters to match sounds, to make reading and writing easier for immigrants. The series was ed in 1990, but was not completed until 1993. Scriptural passages written in the deseret alphabet appeared in the deseret news in 1859. The deseret block was derived from an earlier private use encoding in the conscript unicode registry, like the shavian and phaistos disc encodings. A complete guide to reading and writing the deseret alphabet book. Jul 21, 2014 catherine falzone, cataloger at the newyork historical society, recently blogged about three books printed in the deseret alphabet, a 19 thcentury experiment sponsored by the church of jesus.
As it turned out, there were very few books actually printed in the new alphabet, an edition of the book of mormon being one. The deseret alphabet is a phonemic englishlanguage spelling reform developed between. Part of thehistory commons,linguistics commons, and themormon studies commons this thesis is brought to you for free and open access by byu scholarsarchive. After approval, the board began to prepare topics for readers to be printed in the new alphabet. A complete guide to reading and writing the deseret alphabet. This book does not pretend to give a detailed history of the origin and demise of the nineteenthcentury deseret alphabet. Beesley has already written about that in the deseret alphabet in unicode. Search the history of over 431 billion web pages on the internet. With that information, and the picture of the salt lake temple on the cover, i deduced that it was a mormon publication. For at least a year brigham youngs account books were kept in the deseret alphabet, and a new york firm printed five hundred copies of the entire book of mormon in it. The resulting book offers a fascinating mix of linguistics, mormon history, and native american studies. The volume is of value to persons interested in early mormon missions, the deseret alphabet, the hopi people, or to linguists interested in the hopi language or utoaztecan comparative linguistics.
The alphabet was created by brigham youngs direction as an attempt to make the english language less complex to learn for incoming foreign converts. However, i will not be the one to write such a book, as my skills are in. The deseret alphabet, a 38letter writing system developed by mormons copy link facebook twitter reddit flipboard pocket the opening pages of an 1869 copy of the book of mormon, printed in deseret. In 1869, deseret university published tenthousand copies of each of two textbooks, deseret first book and deseret second book. Deseret alphabet catalog catalog of liturature written in. It is a very short and small paperback book, only about 40 pages including an introduction to the deseret alphabet by arlene b. Between 1847 and 1854, the mormonfounded university of deseret developed and promoted an alternative phonetic alphabet, modeled partly on pitman shorthand, to ease englishlanguage learning and. The deseret alphabet experiment religious studies center. The churchowned deseret news at great salt lake city, utahs first newspaper, published portions of its 1859 editions in the distinctive system. He named the state desereta word from the book of mormon. This book is in the deseret alphabet, a phonetic alphabet for writing english developed in the mid19th century at the it is held to be canonical by the church of jesus christ of latterday saints and related denominations. In 1860, the phrase, holiness to the lord was placed in the deseret alphabet on gold pieces.
History creation 18471854 the deseret alphabet was developed primarily by a committee made up of the universitys board of regents, members of which included church leaders brigham young, parley p. In addition, some historical records, diaries, and other materials were handwritten. A history of the deseret alphabet larry ray wintersteen brigham young university provo follow this and additional works at. Like the law of consecration, however, the deseret alphabet never achieved widespread acceptance, despite repeated attempts by young to promote the system. The church history library and the internet archive recently made available a complete scanned copy of the 1869 deseret alphabet edition of the book of. The inclusion of the deseret alphabet spellings in this onomasticon is provided as an aid to the pronunciation of these words at the time the book of mormon was printed using the deseret alphabet. Those learning english could find few reading materials in the deseret alphabet compared to the massive amount of reading material already available in the latin alphabet. The coins were quickly followed by handbills, shop signs, journals, articles in the deseret news, and even tombstone inscriptions. This book is in excellent condition, particularly given its age. You can browse the whole deseret alphabet book of mormon, 1869 edition, on the internet archive. In 1860 holiness to the lord was inscribed in the deseret alphabet on deseret gold pieces. Not only do we have a glorious mandate to teach all nations the gospel, we also have numerous charges to teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom. Between 1847 and 1854, the mormonfounded university of deseret developed and promoted an alternative phonetic alphabet, modeled partly on pitman shorthand, to ease englishlanguage learning and cultural assimilation among new immigrants from europe.
Various articles were also published in the deseret news using the alphabet during that time. The deseret alphabet is a beautiful part of our heritage, and remains a shining example of. A printed page showing the deseret alphabet, around 1850. Typesetting the deseret alphabet with latex and metafont. Only four books were published in the alphabet, this one being the most attractive of the four. The church of jesus christ of latterday saints during the years 18521877, introduced to its membership a form of rhetoric writing system called the deseret alphabet phonetic alphabet. English is notoriously difficult to learn and much of the problem stems from the differences between spelling and pronunciation.
If you are from new england the phonemes make much more sense as to how the symbols sound especially if you speak the traditional english dialect spoken in toronto or vermontnew hampshire, boston, or. Watt, under the supervision of a university of deseret committee, that acted under brigham youngs direction. The book of mormon, doctrine and covenants, and the perl of great. A committee from the university of deseret now the university of utah organized the effort. Dec 17, 2018 this is an audio version of the wikipedia article. The book of mormon was transcribed into the deseret alphabet by orson pratt. The internet archive also has very nice scans of these books, plus some other interesting documents. The hours spent developing the alphabet, transliterating the scriptures, writing the primers, and promoting and. Watt also began giving lectures about the alphabet. An 1860 englishhopi vocabulary written in the deseret alphabet. Jan 04, 2017 the deseret alphabeta phonetic alphabet used briefly in early utahis represented on what looks like an antique book in some foreign script. Historical objects courtesy church historical department. During the alphabets heyday between 1854 and 1869, books, newspapers, street signs and correspondence used.
The alphabet looks somewhat like the cyrillic alphabet. Find thousands of lds books, movies, music and more. Moore, most scholars believe that watts contribution to the alphabet was the greatest. Another testament of jesus christ smith jun, joseph on. The deseret alphabet was an attempt to make an english language alphabet that was phonetic. It is not a reproduction of the 1869 deseret alphabet edition of the book of mormon but a completely new transliteration based on the modern text and modern chapterverse.