Editing Deseret alphabet (section)

=== 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 =
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| 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>