Editing Deseret alphabet (section)

== Other motives ==
Officially, the Deseret alphabet was created to simplify the spelling of English words for the benefit of children and [[English as a second language]] learners. Some of the alphabet's contemporaries, however, posited an alternative motivation for its development: increasing the [[isolationism|isolation]] of the early Mormons.

=== To keep outsiders from reading Mormon secrets (largely dismissed) ===
The charge that the Deseret alphabet's main purpose was to keep outsiders ("[[Gentile#The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|gentiles]]" in LDS terminology) in the dark was brought almost immediately, as evidenced by the following 1858 ''[[Lyttelton Times]]'' reprint of an unnamed "New York newspaper":<ref name=":11" />{{Blockquote|text={{Small-caps|Mormon Secretiveness}}.—The new "Deseret Alphabet" is completed, and a fount of [[pica (typography)|pica]] type has been cast in St. Louis. [[Type specimen|Specimens]] of the type are published in the St. Louis papers, but they are unproducible in types that common people use [...] The [[wikt:en:ukase|ukase]]s of Brother Brigham will hereafter be a sealed letter, literally, to Gentile eyes.|sign=|source=}}
Having obtained a copy of the ''Deseret News'' in 1859, the ''Richmond Dispatch'' disparaged it on April 25, writing "The ''Deseret News'' is filled with a lot of hieroglyphs. It seems to be [an alphabet] which the Mormons alone are to be taught."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/79767205/?terms=Deseret+alphabet|title=Later from Utah|date=25 April 1859|newspaper=Richmond Dispatch|page=1|language=en|url-access=subscription|access-date=2017-01-24|via=Newspapers.com|archive-date=2 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202024723/https://www.newspapers.com/image/79767205/?terms=Deseret+alphabet|url-status=live}}</ref>

Modern historians, however, doubt the veracity of this theory.<ref name="Moore2006" /><ref name="Wentz1978" /> For one thing, notes Kenneth R. Beesley, the ''Deseret News'' and every book published in the alphabet prominently features the key to the alphabet,<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|36}} and anyone without a key could have gotten a copy of ''A Journey to Great-Salt-Lake City'', or traveled to Salt Lake City themselves and bought one.<ref name="Moore2006" /> Contemporary scholars [[Richard F. Burton]] and [[Jules Remy]] also dismissed the secrecy argument, in 1860 and 1855 respectively.<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|36}}

=== To keep Mormons from reading outside literature ===
With the impending completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, the Mormon pioneers would have easy, cheap access to publications from the east, including [[yellow-back|yellowbacks]], [[penny dreadful]]s, [[pulp magazine]]s, and other often scandalous or dirty publications that were rising to prominence in the 19th century. Indeed, in an article about the benefits of the alphabet, the ''Deseret News'' proudly wrote:<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2601635#t_2601635|title=The Deseret Alphabet{{Emdash}}Its Advantages|date=18 August 1868|work=Deseret News|page=2|access-date=2017-01-16|via=University of Utah: Utah Digital Newspapers|archive-date=29 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729221333/https://newspapers.lib.utah.edu/details?id=2601635#t_2601635|url-status=live}}</ref>{{Blockquote|text=If our community were situated as others are, it might be [[Don Quixote|Quixotic]] to attempt the introduction of this reform among us with the hope of carrying it into practical operation. But our position is unique, we are united. [...] Some have an idea that if a child be educated in the system of spelling and writing by sound it will be a detriment to it in learning the present system. [...] '''If they could find no better reading than much of the miserable trash that now obtains extensive circulation, it would be better if they never learned to read the present orthography.''' In such a case ignorance would be blissful. [...] The greatest evils which now flourish and under which Christendom groans are directly traceable to the licentiousness of the press.|sign=|source="The Deseret Alphabet{{Emdash}}Its Advantages", 19 August 1868, ''Deseret News''}}
In another article, the ''Deseret News'' cited an example of the kind of literature Mormons would benefit from not being able to read: ''[[The Police Gazette]]''.<ref name="Beesley2002" />{{rp|35}} Historians A. J. Simmonds and Roby Wentz contend that while this may have been a tertiary goal of the alphabet, a sort of "happy accident", the main purpose of it was simple orthographic reform.<ref name="Simmonds1968" /><ref name="Spendlove2015" /> Simmonds notes that the teaching of English to foreigners was not a mere hypothetical to mask isolationist tendencies: 35% of the [[Utah Territory]]'s population at the time was [[Scandinavia]]n, with [[German language|German]], [[Italian language|Italian]] and [[Welsh language|Welsh]] speaking people also making up a considerable percentage of inhabitants; therefore, communication between the recently [[Baptism in Mormonism|baptized]] and the community was a real problem.<ref name="Simmonds1968" />