๐๐ฉ๐๐ฌ ๐๐ฎ๐๐ฎ (๐๐ฐ๐๐ฌ๐ฟ๐ซ๐๐ป๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ซ๐๐ฎ๐ฎ), ๐๐๐ป๐ฏ๐๐ฌ๐น ๐๐๐ฐ๐๐ผ.
The Deseret Alphabet emerged in the mid-19th century among Latter-day Saint pioneers. Its roots reach back to western Illinoisโwhere the Church was headquartered until the 1840s and leaders explored phonemic shorthand systems like Pitman Shorthand, which later shaped Bellโs Visible Speech and the International Phonetic Alphabet.
The Deseret came into full flower after the Saints settled in Utah.
In 1869, an edition of the Book of Mormon was printed in the Deseret under the supervision of LDS apostle Orson Pratt with the help of Robert Lang Campbell.
Though it never gained wide adoption, new access to historic documents and modern digital fonts has sparked a Deseret Alphabet revival.
The Illinois Deseret Consortium studies how the script was used by early scribes, how it reflected 19th-century Utah English, and how todayโs Mormon scholars and artists are reawakening this uniquely Mormon cultural tradition.
Our Research Mission | ๐๐ ๐ก๐จ๐ ๐ฒ๐๐ฝ ๐ฃ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ๐
The Deseret Alphabet is often dismissed as a curious relic of early Mormon settlement, but its story is far richer.
Our research explores the social, spiritual, and economic forces that shaped this improbable experiment and continue to give it meaning.
Far more than a historical artifact, the alphabet remains a living orthographic toolโone that artists, intellectuals, and seekers use to probe questions of Mormon identity.
We are committed to making nineteenth-century Deseret Alphabet documents fully accessible in searchable, digital form.
We are also interested in the development of new typographical resources for modern users.
We aim to shed new light on how the alphabet was learned, how it functioned in daily life, and how it evolved over time.
We also aim to play some role in the preservation and dissemination of the alphabet to the next generation.
Why this Work Matters | ๐๐ถ๐ด ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐๐ฟ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ป๐ฏ๐๐
For scholars, searchable digital texts open new paths for analyzing how the alphabet was taught, used, and adapted in the nineteenth century.
For the public, digital access lowers barriers to exploring a script once confined to rare books and archives, making it easier for students, artists, and community members to engage with this unique piece of Mormon cultural history.
Most importantly, open dissemination fosters interactionโinviting fresh interpretations, creative projects, and collaborative study that keep the Deseret Alphabet alive as both a historical and living system.
Who we are | ๐๐ญ ๐ถ๐จ ๐ช๐
Neal Davis and Ryan K. Shosted | ๐ค๐จ๐ ๐๐ฉ๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ผ ๐ก๐ด๐ฒ๐ ๐. ๐๐ฑ๐ ๐ป๐ฏ๐ผ
Davis is an educator, engineer, and computer language designer. Shosted is a professor of linguistics.
