The Deseret Alphabet was designed to represent spoken English more consistently than conventional spelling. The alphabet employs a distinct symbol for each individual speech sound rather than relying on the many patterns, some irregular, found in ordinary English.
Although the script may initially appear daunting, most students can learn to read it in a short time. The materials in this guide provide a practical introduction to reading nineteenth-century Deseret Alphabet texts.
This reading guide is part of the Illinois Deseret Consortium research archive, which includes historical texts, including searchable transcriptions of nineteenth-century Deseret Alphabet texts; comparative lexical tools, and resources for writing and typing in the alphabet. If you wish to test your knowledge up front, you can head straight to our graded reading quiz.
When using the Deseret Alphabet, words are generally written according to how they are pronounced rather than according to traditional spelling conventions.
English orthography often obscures pronunciation. The words through, though, tough, and bough all contain the sequence ough, but in each word this sequence represents a different vowel. The Deseret Alphabet sought to avoid such inconsistencies by representing speech sounds more directly. Accordingly, these words appear in the Deseret as ๐๐๐ญ, ๐๐ฌ, ๐ป๐ฒ๐, and ๐บ๐ต.
Readers should therefore focus on pronunciation rather than conventional spelling.
For reference, you might consult this early (ca. 1854) printed specimen of the Deseret Alphabet. Note, however, that some of the Deseret Alphabet characters changed over time.
Consider the name of the alphabet itself:
๐๐ฏ๐ ๐จ๐๐ฏ๐ป
This sequence corresponds approximately to the sounds:
| Symbol | Sound | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ๐ | /d/ | fade |
| ๐ฏ | /ษ/ | dress |
| ๐ | /s/ | hiss |
| ๐จ | /i/ | fleece |
| ๐ | /r/ | rue |
| ๐ฏ | /ษ/ | dress |
| ๐ป | /t/ | fate |
When read aloud, these sounds produce one nineteenth-century pronunciation of Deseret. Most modern Utahns pronounce the word differently and might therefore expect it to be written ๐๐ฏ๐๐ฒ๐๐ฏ๐ป. Yet nineteenth-century writers often preferred ๐๐ฏ๐ ๐จ๐๐ฏ๐ป (among other variants), reminding us that the alphabet preserves some features of historical pronunciation that have since changed.
Note: In the 1830 Book of Mormon, deseret is glossed as โa honey beeโ (p. 540).
The table below lists forty Deseret Alphabet characters, including majuscule and minuscule forms, approximate sound values, and example words.
| Name | Majuscule | Minuscule | Approx. Sound | Example | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Long I | ๐ | ๐จ | /i/ | fleece | |
| Long E | ๐ | ๐ฉ | /e/ or /eษช/ | face | |
| Long A | ๐ | ๐ช | /ษ/ | palm | |
| Long Ah | ๐ | ๐ซ | /ษ/ | thought | |
| Long O | ๐ | ๐ฌ | /o/ or /oส/ | goat | |
| Long Oo | ๐ | ๐ญ | /u/ | goose | |
| Short I | ๐ | ๐ฎ | /ษช/ | kit | |
| Short E | ๐ | ๐ฏ | /ษ/ | dress | |
| Short A | ๐ | ๐ฐ | /รฆ/ | trap | |
| Short Ah | ๐ | ๐ฑ | /ษ/ | lot | |
| Short O | ๐ | ๐ฒ | /ส/ | strut | |
| Short Oo | ๐ | ๐ณ | /ส/ | foot | |
| Ay | ๐ | ๐ด | /aษช/ | price | |
| Ow | ๐ | ๐ต | /aส/ | mouth | |
| Woo | ๐ | ๐ถ | /w/ | woo | |
| Yee | ๐ | ๐ท | /j/ | you | |
| H | ๐ | ๐ธ | /h/ | hay | |
| Pee | ๐ | ๐น | /p/ | rope | |
| Bee | ๐ | ๐บ | /b/ | robe | |
| Tee | ๐ | ๐ป | /t/ | fate | |
| Dee | ๐ | ๐ผ | /d/ | fade | |
| Chee | ๐ | ๐ฝ | /tส/ | catch | |
| Jee | ๐ | ๐พ | /dส/ | edge | |
| Kay | ๐ | ๐ฟ | /k/ | leek | |
| Gay | ๐ | ๐ | /g/ | league | |
| Ef | ๐ | ๐ | /f/ | safe | |
| Vee | ๐ | ๐ | /v/ | save | |
| Eth | ๐ | ๐ | /ฮธ/ | thin | |
| Thee | ๐ | ๐ | /รฐ/ | thine | |
| Es | ๐ | ๐ | /s/ | hiss | |
| Zee | ๐ | ๐ | /z/ | his | |
| Esh | ๐ | ๐ | /ส/ | cash | |
| Zhee | ๐ | ๐ | /ส/ | vision | |
| Ur | ๐ก | ๐ | /r/ | rue | |
| El | ๐ข | ๐ | /l/ | leaf | |
| Em | ๐ฃ | ๐ | /m/ | seem | |
| En | ๐ค | ๐ | /n/ | seen | |
| Eng | ๐ฅ | ๐ | /ล/ | sing | |
| Oi | ๐ฆ | ๐ | /ษษช/ | choice | |
| Ew | ๐ง | ๐ | /ju/ | mule |
Note: Deseret Alphabet sound values and symbols varied across time, writers, and publications. This chart is intended as a practical reading aid rather than a complete account of nineteenth-century usage. In addition, letter names are not always made explicit in original publications and so some have been standardized and/or inferred here.
| Deseret | English |
|---|---|
| ๐๐ฎ๐ณ๐ป๐ช | Utah |
| ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐๐๐ฒ๐ | Mormon |
| ๐บ๐ณ๐ฟ | book |
| ๐ฐ๐๐๐ฐ๐บ๐ฏ๐ป | alphabet |
| ๐ฃ๐ฌ๐๐ฎ๐ฐ๐๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ญ๐๐ฏ๐ | Moriancumer |
Try a full sentence attributed to Brigham Young (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, 9 April 1852):
๐๐จ ๐ฎ๐ ๐ต๐ ๐๐ช๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ผ ๐ต๐ ๐๐ฑ๐ผ, ๐ฐ๐๐ผ ๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐ฎ ๐๐ฑ๐ผ ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ ๐ธ๐ญ๐ ๐ถ๐จ ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ ๐ป๐ญ ๐ผ๐ญ.
He is our father and our God, and the only God with whom we have to do.
Readers are encouraged to compare these spellings with examples found throughout the Illinois Deseret Consortiumโs expanding digitized corpus, especially the many variants found in the Comparative Lexicon.
Ready for a challenge? Try our graded reading quiz based on spellings in the 1869 Deseret Alphabet Book of Mormon.
One of the most valuable features of the Deseret Alphabet is its capacity to record the writerโs pronunciation. Because the script was designed to represent speech sounds more directly than conventional English spelling, Deseret texts provide important evidence about how some Utahns spoke during the territorial period. Still, the relationship between spelling and speech is not always straightforward. The Deseret Alphabet lacked a fully standardized orthography for most of its history, and a proposed dictionary was never completed. Consequently, spelling practices varied considerably. Some variations likely reflect differences in pronunciation, while others may represent individual or editorial preferences in writing rather than spoken usage alone.
Nevertheless, for linguists and historians, Deseret Alphabet spellings can provide an important source of information about language change, migration, education, and regional identity in the nineteenth-century American West.
Once you are comfortable reading the alphabet, try the Deseret First Book and Deseret Second Book, explore the searchable Deseret Alphabet text corpus, or consult the Comparative Lexicon to compare historical spellings and pronunciations. More experienced readers may be interested in trying the complete 1869 Deseret Alphabet Book of Mormon. To produce Deseret text yourself, see our guides to writing and typing in the alphabet. You can also take a graded reading quiz to test your knowledge.
Those interested in the history, language ideology, and cultural legacy of the script may wish to read Shosted and Davisโ landmark study, The Deseret Alphabet: A Fixed and Unalterable Sound (University of Illinois Press, 2026).