Deseret First Book
The 1868 primer introduces the letters through lessons meant for the alphabetโs first readers.
Open the primerWriting for the end of the world
New letters for
the Latter Days.
Reading, writing, and religion converged in nineteenth-century Utah. For Latter-day Saints of that era, a humble new alphabet formed part of a sweeping millenarian project to receive a new heaven and build a new earth. The Saints put their new letters into print and used them in private records and correspondence. Here you can wonder at their intentions and read what they wrote. Perhaps you will even find your own place within their curious and expansive vision.
๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐ฏ๐ ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ ๐ ๐ป๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ป๐ญ ๐ ๐น๐จ๐น๐ ๐ช ๐น๐ฎ๐ญ๐ ๐๐ฉ๐๐๐ถ๐ฏ๐พโฆPioneers of the new alphabet
Annie Smith Alston1852โ1917. Deseret Alphabet scribe and adopted daughter of Orson Pratt.Courtesy [add archive or owner] ยท [link empty โ add sourceUrl]Explore the New Testament manuscript
Hear the desert singing
In our lovely Deseret
An early Mormon hymn is a good place to start.
A guide to the letters๐๐ฎ๐ ๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ถ๐ฑ๐ ๐ถ๐ฒ๐๐ ๐ช ๐๐ช๐๐ผ๐ ๐น๐๐ฉ๐ ,
Read in Roman letters
This earth was once a garden place,
1835 hymnal ยท Hymn 23, p. 29Rendered in Deseret today, according to historical spelling conventions.
Collections
Read what the Saints wrote.
The 1869 Book of Mormon gave the alphabet its culminative, institutional form. In earlier Deseret manuscripts, starting in 1853, the idiosyncracies of individual writers are more apparent. Our transcriptions let you study all kinds of Deseret documents. Check back regularly to see what we have added.
The Book of Mormon
Read the complete Deseret edition in a searchable transcription. Familiar passages offer a foothold in the script.
Read the transcriptionThe Blood Stone Letter
George D. Watt wrote this letter to Brigham Young in cursive Deseret. His handwriting differs markedly from the familiar printed letters.
Examine the letterThe New Testament manuscript
This extensive manuscript is very likely the work of Annie Smith, later Alston. It records the labor of rendering the New Testament in Deseret.
Explore the manuscriptJohn Lyman Smith journal
John Lyman Smith used Deseret to keep a journal. His entries show how the script served an individual writer.
Read the journalDeseret Second Book
Longer lessons and selected poetry extend the reading begun in the First Book.
Continue readingWilford Woodruff Journal
Between 18 June and 9 July 1859, Wilford Woodruff tried the new alphabet in his journal.
Explore the documentThales Hastings Haskell Journal
Haskell recorded his mission among the Hopi in Deseret. His spellings also preserve traces of the Massachusetts speech he brought west.
Explore the diaryIsaac Bullock Diary
Bullockโs diary dates from 1854โ1855, when the alphabet was still new.
Explore the documentHistorical Department Office Journal
Clerks in the Church Historianโs Office occasionally turned to Deseret in this working journal.
Explore the documentBishopsโ Meeting Minutes
George D. Wattโs cursive Deseret records the bishopsโ meetings. Individual wordforms can be compared with his other handwriting.
Explore the documentDeseret News scripture passages
The church-owned newspaper brought Deseret to its readers through passages of scripture.
Explore the documentHaden W. Church Letter
Writing from Tennessee, Haden W. Church moved between Roman letters and Deseret in the same account.
Explore the documentMarion J. Shelton Correspondence
Sheltonโs letters from Orayvi and Harmony show his use of Deseret away from the Salt Lake Valley.
Explore the documentSheltonโYoung Letter
Shelton proposed changes to Deseret spelling. Brigham Youngโs response accompanies the letter.
Explore the documentOrson Pratt Key
This unsigned alphabet key is probably associated with Orson Prattโs work on the 1868 primers.
Explore the documentRichardsโBancroft Letter
In 1885, Franklin D. Richards explained the alphabetโs history to Hubert Howe Bancroft, looking back some thirty years to its beginnings.
Explore the documentPolitical Tickets
These election tickets carried Deseret into Utahโs political life in the 1870s.
Explore the documentSt. Louis Specimen
Printed in the Daily Missouri Democrat, this specimen displays the Deseret type produced by Ladew, Peers & Co.
Explore the documentNo matching documents
Try a shorter search, such as โWoodruffโ or โjournalโ. Select โAll sourcesโ to include both printed works and manuscripts.
Learn
Write your story in the script of seers.
The phonetic letters of the Deseret Alphabet may be unfamiliar but the language is most often just plain English, albeit with some charming nineteenth-century touches. You can learn the basics in just a few hours.
Learn to read the Deseret
till dooms dayโ
โJoseph Smith, 1841
Reported by Wilford Woodruff
Hear what the letters represent.
Match each letter to its sound. The reading exercises give you words to work through at your own pace.
Try the handwritten forms.
Practice forming the letters before turning to cursive, where connected strokes can make familiar shapes harder to recognize.
Put Deseret on the page.
Try writing your name or a sentence from a favorite hymn. Compose Deseret texts online or install our keyboard on your computer and go to town!
Keep going: Typing Practice or Handcart Trail.
Tools
Tools for closer reading
Comparative Lexicon
A word may be clothed in more than one spelling. The lexicon gathers forms with citations so you can refer to the documents in which they occur.
Reading unfamiliar forms
A puzzling word may reflect an unfamiliar spelling or a letter drawn differently from the printed form you know. We are here to help.
Research
Does writing English in new letters make a difference?
The Deseret Alphabet was always more than a mere experiment in spelling. Its history belongs to the Saintsโ efforts to build Zion, including their ambition to receive or restore a pure language. The unfolding of the alphabet, together with its rejection and its improbable renewal, raise profound questions about the mystical power of writing to encode language, consolidate social relationships, and preserve sacred history.
Explore the researchEssays & scholarship
Who invented the Deseret Alphabet?
George D. Wattโs role is well known, but the regents of the University of Deseret also shaped the alphabet. This essay examines their deliberations alongside Wattโs letters and the recollections of others to ask how responsibility for design of the Deseret Alphabet was distributed.
Read the essay โPublications โAbout
The Illinois Deseret Consortium
The Consortium prepares historical Deseret texts for readers who want to examine them firsthand. Our transcriptions support research, but you need no academic affiliation to use them. If you are learning the alphabet or returning to a source you know well, this work is for you too.