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Brigham Young's Deseret Alphabet
One of the
curious items of early Utah history was Brigham Young's effort to
introduce a new alphabet, known as the Deseret Alphabet, into Mormon use.
Western historian David Bigler observed:
"Old Testament ideas on land
ownership and marked ballots were not the only indications that Utah's
earliest settlers were bent on creating a society altogether unlike the
rest of the country. Soon after arriving in the Great Basin they even
undertook to create a new method to write the English language.
"In 1854 the University of
Deseret, predecessor of the University of Utah, introduced the Deseret
Alphabet, consisting of thirty-eight characters to conform with the
basic number of sounds in the English language. The curious set of
symbols was created by 39-year-old George D. Watt, an expert in Pitman
shorthand and the faith's first English convert.
"Aimed to reform the
representation of the English language, not the language itself, the new
phonetic system offered a number of advantages. First, it demonstrated
cultural exclusivism, an important consideration. It also kept secrets
from curious non-Mormons, controlled what children would be allowed to
read, and in a largely unlettered society that included non-English
speaking converts, eliminated the awkward problem of phonetic spelling.
For such reasons, for nearly two decades Brigham Young pushed the new
alphabet on reluctant followers. The church-owned Deseret News at
Great Salt Lake City, Utah's first newspaper, published portions of
its 1859 editions in the distinctive system. And the University of
Deseret's board of regents at one time voted $10,000 to print text
books in the alphabet for students in classrooms across the territory.
"Like the law of consecration,
however, the Deseret Alphabet never achieved widespread acceptance,
despite repeated attempts by Young to promote the system. On some
things, the people of Utah quietly overruled their strong-minded
leader." (Forgotten
Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847-1896,
by David L. Bigler, Arthur H. Clark Co., 1998, p.56)
LDS historian Thomas G. Alexander
explained:
"An alphabet of thirty-eight
characters was designed to present each sound of the English language.
...The Deseret alphabet proved to be an "expensive failure,"
but the project indicated the extent to which Utah's community leaders
borrowed from outside systems in order to meet a pressing need to
introduce phonetic orthography for the English language." (Things
in Heaven and Earth:
The Life and Times of Wilford Woodruff, a Mormon Prophet, by Thomas
G. Alexander, Signature Books, 1991, p.210)
LDS scholar Stanley B. Kimball
commented:
"No one knows the origin of
its strange characters, but certainly Watt's knowledge of phonography
was fundamental. After the thirty-eight-character alphabet (including
the Latin letters C, D, L, O, P, S, W) was devised, the committee had a
type font cast in St. Louis and some printing was done with it. A First
Reader, in an edition of 10,000 copies, was published, as well as 10,000
copies of a Second Reader, and 8,000 copies of part of the Book of
Mormon were also printed. The experiment was finally abandoned in 1869,
a year after Heber's death. There is no evidence that Heber [Kimball]
ever learned the alphabet." (Heber C. Kimball, by
Stanley B. Kimball, p. 206)
Preaching on October 8th, 1868,
Brigham Young advised:
"There are a few items I wish
to lay before the Conference before we dismiss, which I think we shall
do when we get through our meeting this afternoon. One of these items is
to present to the congregation the Deseret Alphabet. ...The advantages
of this alphabet will soon be realized, especially by foreigners.
Brethren who come here knowing nothing of the English language will find
its acquisition greatly facilitated by means of this alphabet, by which
all the sounds of the language can be represented and expressed with the
greatest ease. As this is the grand difficulty foreigners experience in
learning the English language, they will find a knowledge of this
alphabet will greatly facilitate their efforts in acquiring at least a
partial English education. It will also be very advantageous to our
children. 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." (Journal of Discourses,
Vol. 12, p. 298, Brigham Young, delivered in the Tabernacle, Salt
Lake City, Oct. 8th, 1868.)
Western historian Hubert H. Bancroft
reported:
"At a meeting of the board of
regents, held in October 1853, Parley P. Pratt, Heber C. Kimball, and
George D. Watt were appointed a committee to prepare a small school-book
in characters founded on some new system of orthography, whereby the
spelling and pronunciation of the English language might be made uniform
and easily acquired. A further object was exclusiveness, a separate
people wishing to have a separate language, and perhaps in time an
independent literature. ...Finally, at a session held in December of
this year, characters were adopted, under the style of the Deseret
alphabet, the number of letters, or rather sounds, being thirty-two, of
which the so-called vocal sounds were eleven, including six long, with
short sounds to correspond, four double and one aspirate, and twenty-one
articulate sounds. Thus the long sound of the letter e in meter was
represented by a character resembling the Greek sigma reversed, the
double sound of woo in wood by one resembling omega, the aspirate by
phi, and the articulate sound of f by rho. While these characters are
apparently borrowed from the Greek, this is also the case in the plates
from which the book of Mormon is said to have been translated, where the
letters pi, rho, tau, phi, chi, some of them as in manuscript, and
others as in printed Greek, can be distinctly traced.
"Type was ordered, and with a
view to durability, made so as to contain neither the top nor tail
extensions of the letters. At a meeting of the board of regents, held in
March 1854, some of it was presented to the members; and between that
date and 1869 were published in the Deseret alphabet a primer, the book
of Mormon, and the first book of Nephi. Some attempt was made to
introduce into the public schools books thus printed, but without
success. The tailless characters, and the monotonous evenness of the
lines, made the words difficult to distinguish, and it was found
impossible to insure uniform pronunciation and orthography. Within a few
years the alphabet fell into disuse, and is now remembered only as a
curiosity." (History
of Utah:1540-1886, Hubert H Bancroft, ch.26, 1889,
pp. 712-714)
In a recent article in the Salt
Lake Tribune we read:
"Convinced residents of his
utopian world needed an easier way to write English, Young poured
thousands of dollars into developing the Deseret alphabet, despite more
pressing needs like growing crops and building homes. ...
"The new alphabet had 38
characters....But while the idea sounded grand, the alphabet failed
entirely.
" 'It was another of Brigham
Young's bold and audacious experiments,' University of Utah History
Professor Dean May said. ...
"It was also extremely
expensive to typeset the new characters and only four books were ever
published: two elementary school readers, one partial Book of Mormon and
one full Book of Mormon." ("The
Deseret Alphabet Died With Brigham Young," by Vania Grandi, Salt
Lake Tribune, Dec. 2, 2000, p. D8)
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