Editing Deseret alphabet (section)

=== 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}}