Editing Deseret alphabet (section)

== History ==

=== Creation (1847–1854) ===
The Deseret alphabet was a project of the [[Mormon pioneers]], a group of early followers of [[the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints]] (LDS Church) who, motivated by [[revelation]]s of a unique [[premillennialism|premillennial]] [[eschatology]], had set about building a unique [[theocracy]] in the Utah desert, which was then still claimed by [[Mexico]], after the death of the church's founder, the [[prophet]] [[Joseph Smith]]. They were to build a "city of Zion" where converts would gather in preparation for the Second Coming of Christ.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Gathering of Israel |url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/eng/history/topics/gathering-of-israel |access-date=2023-04-10 |website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org |language=en}}</ref> As part of that [[Gathering of Israel|Gathering]], in 1848, Church leaders urged converts in Europe to "emigrate as speedily as possible" to the Great Basin.<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 15, 1848 |title=Vol. 10, no 6. |pages=81–88 |work=Millennial Star}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hartley |first=William G. |title="Gathering," in Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History |publisher=Deseret Book |year=2000 |isbn=9781573458221 |location=Salt Lake City |pages=415 ff}}</ref> There, in the [[Kingdom of God (Latter Day Saints)|"Kingdom of God,"]]<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Young |first=Brigham |date= |title=July 1855 |journal=Journal of Discourses |volume=2|issue=310 }}</ref> under fused [[theo-democratic]] leadership, they would be safe from the fall of the [[Apostasy|apostate]] world of so-called "Babylon."

March 6, 1849, Church authorities organized the "free and independent government" called the [[State of Deseret]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bigler |first=David L. |title=Forgotten kingdom: the Mormon theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 |date=1998 |publisher=Arthur H. Clark Company |isbn=978-0-87062-282-3 |series=Kingdom in the West |location=Spokane, Wash |pages=46}}</ref> while retaining the [[Council of Fifty]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bigler |first=David L. |title=Forgotten kingdom: the Mormon theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 |date=1998 |publisher=Arthur H. Clark Company |isbn=978-0-87062-282-3 |series=Kingdom in the West |location=Spokane, Wash |pages=347}}</ref> In that historical context, which has been called "The Forgotten Kingdom,"<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Bigler |first=David L. |title=Forgotten Kingdom: The Mormon Theocracy in the American West, 1847–1896 |publisher=Arthur Clark Co. |year=1998 |isbn=978-0874212457 |location=Spokane |pages=16, 35}}</ref> there was a "compete identity of religious and temporal purpose throughout the history of the Alphabet."<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Morgan |first=Dale |title="The Deseret Alphabet" in Dale Morgan on the Mormons, Collected Works, Part 1, 1939–1951 |publisher=Arthur Clark Co. |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-87062-416-2 |location=Norman, OK |pages=166–99}}</ref> This theo-linguistic fusion has been noted by multiple historians.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Neff |first=Andrew Love |title=History of Utah 1847–1869 |publisher=Deseret News Press |year=1940 |location=Salt Lake City |pages=853}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=New |first=Douglas Allan |title=History of the Deseret Alphabet and Other Attempts to Reform English Orthography |publisher=Ph.D. dissertation, Utah State University |year=1985 |pages=88}}</ref><ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Grose |first=Andrew John |title=Of Two Minds: Language Reform and Millennialism in the Deseret Alphabet. |publisher=Master's thesis, Stanford University |year=2001 |pages=160}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Henrichsen |first=Lynn E. and Georgia Bailey |date=Fall 2010 |title="No More Strangers and Foreigners": The Dual Focus of the LDS Church Language Program for Scandinavian Immigrants, 1850–1935 |journal=Mormon Historical Studies |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=Note 38, p. 51 |via=BYU, L. Tom Perry Special Collections}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Alder |first=Douglas D., Paula J. Goodfellow, and Ronald G. Watt |title=Creating a New Alphabet for Zion: The Origin of the Deseret Alphabet |url=https://issuu.com/utah10/docs/uhq_volume52_1984_number3/s/143276 |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=issuu |language=en}}</ref>

The "New Alphabet" was intended to correct "the corruptions and perversions of language which was originally pure", and to meet the urgent need for a language to "answer the demands of a constant intercommunication between several thousand languages". One "fitted to meet the great emergency of the great gathering and great work of teaching the law of the Lord to all people."<ref>{{Cite news |date=November 24, 1853 |title=Regency |work=Deseret News}}</ref>  This reformation of English orthography was a first step to the ultimate restoration of [[Adamic language]] for use in the anticipated millennial [[dispensation of the fulness of times]].<ref name=":0" />

The Deseret Typographical Association called the alphabet "a forerunner in that series of developments which shall prepare mankind for the reception of pure language".<ref>{{Cite news |title=Deseret News |work=August 15, 1855}}</ref> Brigham Young, Church President and Prophet, the "driving force" for the reform, looked forward to the time "when a man is full of light of eternity", and stated, "I shall yet see the time that I can converse with this people without opening my mouth."<ref>Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 1:69-71</ref>

The Deseret alphabet was developed primarily by a committee made up of the board of regents of the [[University of Deseret]], members of which included LDS Church leaders Brigham Young, [[Parley P. Pratt]], [[Heber C. Kimball]], and several of the other [[Apostle (Latter Day Saints)|Apostles]]. According to [[Brigham Young University]] professor Richard G. Moore, most scholars believe that [[George D. Watt]]'s contribution to the actual form the alphabet took, its unique [[glyph]]s, was the greatest;<ref name="Moore2006" /> he furthermore "plant[ed] the idea of [[spelling reform]] in Brigham Young's mind" through a [[Pitman shorthand|phonography]] class he gave after the [[death of Joseph Smith]] which Young attended.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|6}}<ref name="Watt2009" />{{rp|143}} [[W. W. Phelps (Mormon)|William W. Phelps]] helped "work out the letters"<ref>Jules Remy, ''A Journey to Salt Lake City'' (London, 1861) 185.</ref> along with Pratt.<ref name="Watt2009" />{{rp|147}}  [[File:English Phonotypic Alphabet - 1847.png|left| thumb|The Deseret alphabet was based on [[Isaac Pitman]]'s ''[[English Phonotypic Alphabet]]'', and in fact, Pitman's alphabet was nearly chosen by the Board of Regents as their preferred spelling reform.]] Before they decided on the Deseret alphabet, the attention of the board of regents was mostly focused on [[English Phonotypic Alphabet|Pitman style alphabets]], and in April 1847 Brigham Young nearly purchased {{Convert|200|lb|kg}} of [[sort (typesetting)|lead type]] to print books using Pitman's orthography.<ref name="Moore2006" /><ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|7}} The University of Deseret was incorporated on 28 February 1850; less than three weeks later, on 20 March, the new board of regents began to discuss spelling reform.<ref name="Moore2006" />

On 29 November 1853, the committee was ready to approve a slightly modified version of the Pitman orthography, when [[Apostle (Latter Day Saints)|Apostle]] [[Willard Richards]], [[First Presidency (LDS Church)|Second Counselor]] to Young, who had been deathly ill and missed the debate before the vote, saw the proposed alphabet, which spelled the word "phonetic" as "fɷnetic".<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|10}} Richards was quick to condemn it, saying to the committee: "We want a new kind of alphabet...those characters...seem like putting [[new wine into old bottles]]...I am inclined to think...we shall...throw away all characters that bear much resemblance to the English characters, and introduce an alphabet that is original...an alphabet entirely different from any alphabet in use."<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|10}}

These words persuaded Brigham Young and the rest of the committee, and Watt then endeavored to create an original alphabet. Less than two months later, on 19 January 1854, the board of regents finally approved the first 38-letter Deseret alphabet.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|11}} One legacy of Pitman's orthography survived, though: the idea that [[Phonemic orthography|one letter should equal one sound]].<ref name="Watt2009" />{{rp|150{{En dash}}152}}

=== Use by the Mormon pioneers (1854–1869) ===
Upon the alphabet's acceptance, its first user was its principal architect, George D. Watt, who began writing the meeting minutes of the early [[Bishop (Latter Day Saints)|Bishops]] in a cursive form of it in 1854.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|12}} Almost immediately after its publication, church members began experimenting with it, and by 1855 travel writers Jules Remy and [[Julius Brenchley]] published a chart of the new alphabet which differed heavily from the 1854 version. Some early Mormons, such as [[Thales Hastings Haskell]], began writing their personal journals in the new alphabet.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|16}} Remy further reported that during his time in [[Salt Lake City]], he saw signs on the street and above shops using the new alphabet.<ref name="Wentz1978" />

After its approval by the board of regents, Brigham Young testified before the [[Utah Legislature|Utah territorial legislature]] that the new alphabet should "be thoroughly and extensively taught in all the schools". Some teaching in Utah schools did take place: John B. Milner taught the alphabet in [[Provo, Utah|Provo]], [[Lehi, Utah|Lehi]], [[American Fork, Utah|American Fork]], and [[Pleasant Grove, Utah|Pleasant Grove]], while evening classes were taught in Salt Lake City and [[Farmington, Utah|Farmington]].<ref name="Moore2006" /><ref name="EveningStar1855">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/145765007/?terms=Deseret%2Balphabet |title=The Deseret Alphabet |date=11 June 1855 |work=Evening Star |location=Washington D.C. |url-access=subscription |access-date=2017-01-16 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=18 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118031608/https://www.newspapers.com/image/145765007/?terms=Deseret%2Balphabet |url-status=live }}</ref>

After several months' practice writing with the new alphabet, Watt wrote to Brigham Young that he was unhappy with it, and proposed a complete overhaul, which was never followed up on.<ref name="Beesley2002">{{Cite journal |last=Beesley |first=Kenneth R. |date=14 August 2002 |title=The Deseret Alphabet in Unicode |url=http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/Ken%20Beesley/Deseret%20in%20Unicode.pdf |journal=22nd International Unicode Conference |access-date=6 January 2017 |archive-date=10 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140610063124/http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/Ken%20Beesley/Deseret%20in%20Unicode.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>{{rp|22}}

Word of the new alphabet soon spread outside Utah, and most press reports in non-Mormon papers were critical.<ref name=":11">{{Cite news |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT18580123.2.13 |title=Mormon Secretiveness |date=1858-01-23 |work=Lyttelton Times |access-date=2017-01-16 |via=National Library of New Zealand |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729202652/https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/LT18580123.2.13 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":12">{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/20321179/?terms=Deseret%2Balphabet |title=Affairs in Utah |date=4 March 1872 |work=The New York Times |page=1 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2017-01-16 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=18 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170118031455/https://www.newspapers.com/image/20321179/?terms=Deseret%2Balphabet |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Schindler1998" /> Other writers, however, acquainted with other phonotypic and stenographic alphabets, ranged from neutral descriptions of the new alphabet<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/217513123/?terms=Deseret%2Balphabet |title=Mormon Items{{Emdash}}From Salt Lake |date=10 May 1856 |work=The Chicago Tribune |url-access=subscription |access-date=16 January 2017 |via=Newspapers.com |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729195509/https://www.newspapers.com/image/217513123/?terms=Deseret%2Balphabet |url-status=live }}</ref> to praise.<ref name="EveningStar1855" />

Until this point, all the printed material (mostly just charts of the alphabet and its standard orthography equivalents) had been produced with large [[wood type|wooden type]], which was not suitable for printing at small sizes. Because the alphabet was wholly unique, no font existed, so in 1857 the board of regents appointed [[Erastus Snow]] to procure metal type from [[St. Louis]]-based [[font foundry]] Ladew & Peer. However, in May 1857 the [[Utah War]] began, and Snow left St. Louis to support the Mormon pioneers. During the war, Ladew & Peer kept working on the type, and the [[punchcutting|punches]] and [[matrix (printing)|matrices]] were delivered in the winter of 1858. The first use of the new type was to make a business card for [[George A. Smith]], an early [[Mormon historian]].<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|15}}
[[File:Sermon on the Mount 16 Feb 1859 Deseret News.jpg|left|thumb|The [[Sermon on the Mount]] as it appears in the 16 February 1859 edition of the ''[[Deseret News]]''.]]
In 1859, with the new type in hand, the ''Deseret News'' began printing with it. It would print one piece per issue in the new alphabet, usually a quotation from ''[[The Book of Mormon]]'' or the [[New Testament]]. However, this only lasted for one year, after which the practice stopped; it would start again in May 1864 and stop permanently at the end of that year.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|20}}{{Multiple image| align =
| direction =
| width =
| footer = The covers of two [[primer (textbook)|primer]]s published in the Deseret alphabet during the life of Brigham Young, the ''Deseret First Book'' and the ''Deseret Second Book''.

Their inscriptions read:

<span lang="en-Dsrt>𐐜 𐐔𐐇𐐝𐐀𐐡𐐇𐐓 𐐙𐐊𐐡𐐝𐐓/𐐝𐐇𐐗𐐊𐐤𐐔 𐐒𐐋𐐗 𐐒𐐌 𐐜 𐐡𐐀𐐖𐐇𐐤𐐓𐐝 𐐱𐑂 𐑄 𐐔𐐇𐐝𐐀𐐡𐐇𐐓 𐐏𐐆𐐅𐐤𐐆𐐚𐐊𐐡𐐝𐐆𐐓𐐆 1868.</span>

THE DESERET FIRST/SECOND BOOK BY THE REGENTS of the DESERET UNIVERSITY 1868.
| image1 = Deseret First Book cover.jpg
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| image2 = Deseret Second Book cover.jpg
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}}[[Benn Pitman]], the brother of Isaac Pitman, was also interested in spelling reform, and by 1864 had published his own orthography, which the board of regents considered adopting. However, they ultimately decided not to and used the opportunity to re-affirm their commitment to the Deseret alphabet.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|20}}

Brigham Young blamed the failure of this first attempt at reform on the ugliness of the type developed by Ladew & Peer, and so he commissioned Russell's American Steam Printing House, a [[New York City]] based font foundry, to design more pleasing type. The result was the [[Bodoni]]-esque font (below) that was used to print all of the books in this period.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|20}} In an 1868 article, the ''Deseret News'' wrote that "the characters, to a person unaccustomed to them, may look strange, [but] to the eye to which they are familiar they are beautiful."<ref name="Moore2006" />{{rp|69}}

At least four books were published in the new alphabet, all transcribed by [[Orson Pratt]] and all using the Russell's House font: ''The First Deseret Alphabet Reader'' (1868), ''The Second Deseret Alphabet Reader'' (1868), ''The Book of Mormon'' (1869), and a ''Book of Mormon'' excerpt called ''[[First Book of Nephi|First Nephi]]–[[Book of Omni|Omni]]'' (1869).<ref name="Moore2006" />{{rp|69–70}}

Considerable non-printed material in the Deseret alphabet was made, including a replica headstone in [[Cedar City, Utah]],<ref>{{Citation |title= Iron County |work= I Love History: Place: Counties |publisher= Utah Division of State History |url=http://ilovehistory.utah.gov/place/counties/iron.html#explorers |access-date= 20 October 2011 |archive-date= 20 November 2011 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20111120054800/http://www.ilovehistory.utah.gov/place/counties/iron.html#explorers |url-status= dead }}</ref> some coinage, letters, diaries, and meeting minutes. One of the more curious items found in the Deseret alphabet is an English-[[Hopi language|Hopi]] dictionary prepared by two Mormon missionaries. The handwritten document sat in the [[Church History Library|LDS Church Archives]], largely ignored until 2014 when [[writing system]] researcher and computer scientist Kenneth R. Beesley re-discovered it and transcribed it into standard written English.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Beesley |first1=Kenneth R. |last2=Elzinga |first2=Dirk |date=2014 |title=An 1860 English-Hopi Vocabulary Written in the Deseret Alphabet |publisher=The University of Utah Press |url=https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/an-1860-english-hopi-vocabulary-written-in-the-deseret-alphabet/ |access-date=2023-01-26 |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Decline (1869–1877) ===
{{Multiple image| align =
| direction =
| width =
| footer = The final book the Mormon pioneers printed in the Deseret alphabet: a three part ''Book of Mormon''. On left, the cover of volume one; on right, the Deseret alphabet chart in the book.
| image1 = Book of mormon deseret.jpg
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| image2 = Deseret_chart_in_Book_of_Mormon_1869.png
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}}
Despite years of heavy promotion, the Deseret alphabet was never widely adopted. This reluctance was partly due to prohibitive costs; the project had already cost the early church $20,000,<ref name="Moore2006">{{Cite web|url=http://web.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/Magazine%20articles/The%20Religious%20Educator/Deseret%20Alphabet%20Experiment2.pdf|title=The Deseret Alphabet Experiment|last=Moore|first=Richard G.|year=2006|website=Religious Studies Center|publisher=Brigham Young University|access-date=2017-01-06|archive-date=31 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131191507/http://web.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/Magazine%20articles/The%20Religious%20Educator/Deseret%20Alphabet%20Experiment2.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|76}} with $6,000 going to Pratt as remuneration for his transcription effort<ref name="Simmonds1968">{{Cite news|url=http://web.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/Magazine%20articles/True%20Frontier/Utah's%20Strange%20Alphabet%20by%20A.%20J.%20Simmonds1968.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729222045/http://web.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Historical%20or%20Technical/History%20Looking%20Backwards/Magazine%20articles/True%20Frontier/Utah's%20Strange%20Alphabet%20by%20A.%20J.%20Simmonds1968.pdf |archive-date=2020-07-29 |url-status=live|title=Utah's Strange Alphabet|last=Simmonds|first=A. J.|publisher=Major Magazines, Inc.|year=1968|location=Sparta, Illinois|access-date=2017-01-10}}</ref> and most of the rest going to cutting metal type featuring the new alphabet and printing costs.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|6}} In 1859, Orson Pratt estimated that the cost of supplying all [[Utah Territory]] [[History of education in the United States#Federal era|schoolchildren]] with suitable textbooks would be over $5,000,000.<ref name="Moore2006" />{{rp|76}}
[[File:Peoples Ticket, Salt Lake City, circa 1876, Mormons, front of.jpg|left|thumb|An 1876 [[Ticket (election)|campaign ticket]] for the [[People's Party of Utah]]. The Deseret type is recycled to make a border. The "words" in the border are [[gibberish]].]]
According to Beesley, many have written that interest in the Deseret alphabet died with Brigham Young. This, however, is not true; the alphabet was already regarded as a failure during Young's time.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|29}} Only 500 copies of the full ''Book of Mormon'' translated into the Deseret alphabet sold for $2 each, and even Young realized that the venture was too expensive and even the most devout Mormons could not be convinced to purchase and study the Deseret edition books over the books in the traditional orthography.<ref name="Wentz1978" /><ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|27}} In the winter of 1870, just one year after their publication, advertisements for the Deseret alphabet books were quietly removed from the ''Deseret News''.<ref name="Simmonds1968" />

Contemporary writers noted that thousands of copies of the 15¢ and 20¢ Deseret primers went unsold,<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|6}} and historian Roby Wentz speculated that the LDS Church at that time had a "cache" of the primers in mint condition, which it was slowly selling off; according to him, one such primer sold for $250 in 1978.<ref name="Wentz1978" />

The Mormons had planned to use the profits from sale of the earlier books to fund printing of more books, and in anticipation Orson Pratt had already transcribed the complete [[Bible]], ''[[Doctrine and Covenants]]'', and [[John Jaques (Mormon)|John Jaques]]'s ''Catechism for Children''.<ref name="Zobell1967">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/improvementera7007unse|title=The Improvement Era|last=Zobell |first=Albert L. Jr.|publisher=The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|year=1967|volume=70|issue=7|location=Salt Lake City|pages=[https://archive.org/details/improvementera7007unse/page/n11 10]–11}}</ref> Pratt had also prepared an apparent sequel to the primers, the ''Deseret Phonetic Speller''. After the sales failure, however, none of these books were ever published and were thought lost until being rediscovered in a storage area of the LDS Church Archives in Salt Lake City in May 1967.<ref name="Simmonds1968" /><ref name="Zobell1967" />

Ralph Vigoda, a reporter for ''[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]'', has speculated that the completion of the [[Transcontinental railroad]] may have contributed to the alphabet's downfall: non-Mormons, not loyal to Brigham Young, became a large part of the city, and without the religious motivation it would be difficult indeed to get them to learn a new alphabet.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/176073436/?terms=deseret%2Balphabet|title=A churchman's failed mission: Language logic|last=Vigoda|first=Ralph|date=3 June 1990|work=The Philadelphia Inquirer|page=2C|access-date=14 January 2017|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=16 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116183849/https://www.newspapers.com/image/176073436/?terms=deseret%2Balphabet|url-status=live}}</ref> In a retrospective piece, historian A. J. Simmonds claims that the new railroad doomed the alphabet. According to him, easy access to "the whole literature of the English speaking world" rendered the alphabet useless.<ref name="Simmonds1968" />

In July 1877, Young tried one more time at a spelling reform, ordering lead type designed for the orthography of [[Benn Pitman]] (Isaac's brother) with the intention of printing an edition of the ''Book of Mormon'' and ''Doctrine and Covenants'' using it. Most of the type had arrived by August, but with Young's death, the translation was never undertaken and the type never used. Young's death thus marked the end of the Mormon experimentation with English spelling reforms.<ref name="Moore2006" /><ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|29}}

=== Rediscovery in the computer era ===
[[File:Three phrases in Deseret.svg|thumb|Three questions ("Where is my room?", "Where is the beach?" and "Where is the bar?") in a Deseret digital computer typeface]]

Modern [[digital typography]] has reduced the costs of typesetting substantially, especially for small print runs.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o_TKBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA149|title=Handbook of Typography for the Mathematical Sciences|last=Krantz|first=Steven G.|date=2000-08-31|publisher=CRC Press|isbn=9781420036015|pages=149|language=en|access-date=26 August 2017|archive-date=1 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200801014916/https://books.google.com/books?id=o_TKBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA149|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Free content|Freely licensed]] Deseret alphabet fonts can be used at no additional cost.

[[Film director]] [[Trent Harris]] used the Deseret alphabet in his 1994 satire of Mormon theology, ''[[Plan 10 from Outer Space]]'', where it features as an alien language used on a mysterious "Plaque of [[Kolob]]".<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|37}}

During the 1996 Utah Centennial celebration, an [[activity book]] for children was distributed, within which one of the activities was for a child to write their own name in the alphabet. The book says that a child who does this will be "the first kid in 100 years to write [their] name in the Deseret alphabet!"<ref name="Zion1996">{{Cite web|url=http://brionzion.com/a-b-book.htm |title=Brion Zion's DESERET ALPHABET BOOK |last=Zion |first=Brion |year=1996 |website=brionzion.com |publisher=Wanderer Press, L.C. |access-date=2017-01-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150703094802/http://brionzion.com/a-b-book.htm |archive-date=2015-07-03 }}</ref>

Also in 1996, ''Buffalo River Press'' published a reprint of the ''Deseret First Book'', of which only 10,000 were originally printed.<ref name="Zion1996" /><ref>{{Cite book|title=Deseret First Book (Deseret Alphabet) Historic Reprint |date=1996-01-01 |publisher=Buffalo River Press |isbn=9781887727020|edition=Later printing |location=Salt Lake City |language=en}}</ref> The entire ''Book of Mormon'' in the Deseret alphabet has been likewise reprinted,<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Book of Mormon (2015 Deseret Alphabet edition): Another Testament of Jesus Christ |first=Joseph | last= Smith | author-link=Joseph Smith |date=2015-01-31 |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |isbn=9781507628232|language=en}}</ref> as only 500 copies from the original print run exist, and they can sell on eBay for ≈$7,500 (as of 2004).<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|47}} In 1997, John Jenkins [[electronic publishing|uploaded]] a free three part [[Portable Document Format|PDF]] of the so-called "triple combination", that is, a combined ''Book of Mormon'', ''Doctrine and Covenants'' and ''[[Pearl of Great Price (Mormonism)|Pearl of Great Price]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.deseretalphabet.org/files/Triple.pdf |title=Triple Combination: Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price in the Deseret Alphabet |translator=John Jenkins |year=1997 |website=Deseret Alphabet Portal |location=Cupertino, California |access-date=14 September 2019 |archive-date=30 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180830214827/http://deseretalphabet.org/files/Triple.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

John Jenkins has gone on to publish many classic pieces of [[English literature]] in the Deseret alphabet, such as ''[[Alice in Wonderland]],''<ref>{{Cite book |title=Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (<span lang="en-Dsrt>𐐈𐑊𐐮𐑅'𐑆 𐐈𐐼𐑂𐐯𐑌𐐽𐐲𐑉𐑆 𐐮𐑌 𐐎𐐲𐑌𐐼𐐲𐑉𐑊𐐰𐑌𐐼</span>): An edition printed in the Deseret Alphabet |last=Carroll |first=Lewis |others=Foreword by: John H. Jenkins |date=2014-09-21 |url=https://www.evertype.com/carrolliana.html |publisher=[[Evertype]] |isbn=9781782010647 |language=en |access-date=23 January 2017 |archive-date=10 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170210102915/http://www.evertype.com/carrolliana.html |url-status=live }}</ref> ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'',<ref name="Austen2013">{{Cite book|title=𐐑𐑉𐐴𐐼 𐐰𐑌𐐼 𐐑𐑉𐐯𐐾𐐲𐐼𐐮𐑅 |trans-title=Pride and Prejudice  | others= Adapter: John H. Jenkins |last=Austen |first=Jane |date=2013-04-01 |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |isbn=9781482672015|edition=1|language=en}}</ref> and ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]].''<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Wonderful Wizard of Oz |last=Baum |first=L. Frank |date=2016-12-30 |publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform |isbn=9781541134720|language=en}}</ref>

Owing to the character set's inclusion in Unicode, most of the original books and many of the original manuscripts have been transcribed into [[plain text]],<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|32–34}} and, when this is not possible due to discrepancies between the Unicode reference glyphs and the documents, [[LaTeX]].<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|42}}

==== Fonts ====
[[File:Information wants to be free in five different modern computer fonts for the Deseret alphabet.svg|thumb |300x300px |The phrase "<span lang="en-Dsrt>𐐆𐑌𐑁𐐲𐑉𐑋𐐩𐑇𐐲𐑌 𐐶𐐪𐑌𐐻𐑅 𐐻𐐭 𐐺 𐑁𐑉𐐨</span>" ([[Information wants to be free]]) in five Deseret fonts. From top, Noto Sans Deseret, QueenBee Star, TuBeeRound, Times Bee and Analecta.]] The first digital font for the Deseret alphabet, called "Deseret", was designed by Greg Kearney as part of work he was doing for the [[Church History Library|LDS Church History Department]] in 1991; the font was used in an [[Exhibit design|exhibit]] that year.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|32}} In August 1995, a cleaned up, digitized version of the font in use in the ''Deseret Second Book'' was created by Salt Lake City graphic designer Edward Bateman, who made the font in [[Fontographer]] while working on ''[[Plan 10 from Outer Space]]''.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|32–33}}

Kenneth R. Beesley created a [[Metafont]] (and thus, LaTeX-compatible) font called {{Monospace|[https://github.com/ctrlcctrlv/desalph desalph]}} in 2002.<ref name="Beesley2004" />{{rp|37–38}}<ref name="desalph_source">{{Cite web|url=https://github.com/ctrlcctrlv/desalph/blob/3c2544fc4b69c3eae0e09369a5e86d7e43c843e0/mf/desalph.txt|title=<code>desalph.mf</code> source code|date=2002-02-23|last=Beesley|first=Kenneth R.|via=[[GitHub]]|access-date=12 May 2021|archive-date=25 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125014224/https://github.com/ctrlcctrlv/desalph/blob/3c2544fc4b69c3eae0e09369a5e86d7e43c843e0/mf/desalph.txt|url-status=live}}</ref>

All computers running [[Microsoft]]'s [[Windows 7]] operating system or newer can display the entire Deseret alphabet Unicode range as the glyphs are included in the [[Segoe#Variations|Segoe UI Symbol]] font.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/ee426904.aspx |title=What's New for International Customers in Windows 7 |website=Microsoft Developer Network |publisher=Microsoft |access-date=2017-01-19 |quote=In Windows 7, support for 10 new scripts is added: Braille, '''Deseret''', New Tai Lue, Ogham, Osmanya, Phags-pa, Runic, Symbols, Tai Le, and Tifinagh. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131184755/https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/goglobal/ee426904.aspx |archive-date=2017-01-31 }}</ref>

Besides maintaining a Deseret [[input method]] for Windows, Joshua Erickson, a [[UCLA]] alumnus, also maintains a large collection of [[freeware]] Unicode fonts for the alphabet, which he collectively terms the "Bee Fonts."<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Sans_Serif.html |title=Deseret Bee Fonts |last=Erickson |first=Joshua |website=Joshua Erickson's Deseret Alphabet Pages |publisher=University of California Los Angeles Chemistry & Biochemistry Department |access-date=2017-01-06 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303202706/http://copper.chem.ucla.edu/~jericks/Sans_Serif.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

There also exist [[free software]] fonts for the Deseret alphabet. [[Google]], through its [[Noto Sans]] project, the aim of which is "to support all languages with a harmonious look and feel", has also released a Deseret font under the name "Noto Sans Deseret".<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.google.com/get/noto/ |title=Google Noto Fonts |website=www.google.com |access-date=2017-01-06 |archive-date=8 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170108130144/https://www.google.com/get/noto/ |url-status=live }}</ref> George Douros maintains a [[public domain]] font called "Analecta" as part of his [[Unicode Fonts for Ancient Scripts]] project, which supports the [[Coptic language|Coptic]], [[Gothic language|Gothic]], and Deseret scripts.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/ |title=Unicode Fonts for Ancient Scripts |last=Douros |first=George |date=1 October 2015 |access-date=7 January 2017 |archive-date=21 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721083505/http://users.teilar.gr/~g1951d/Akkadian256.zip |url-status=live }}</ref> Deseret glyphs are also available in the popular pan-Unicode fonts [[Code2000|Code2001]]<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.alanwood.net/unicode/deseret.html |title=Deseret – Test for Unicode support in Web browsers |last=Wood |first=Alan |date=27 October 2001 |website=Alan Wood's Unicode Resources |access-date=2017-01-19 |archive-date=4 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204215420/http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/deseret.html |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Everson Mono]] (as of version 5.1.5).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.evertype.com/emono/ |title=Everson Mono |last=Everson |first=Michael |date=2008-12-28 |website=Evertype |access-date=2017-01-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170705024437/http://www.evertype.com/emono/ |archive-date=2017-07-05 }}</ref>