page_title: Deseret alphabet
section_title: Creation (1847–1854)
hierarchical_section_title: Deseret alphabet / History / Creation (1847–1854)
caption_attribution_description: English: Letters of Isaac Pitman's English Phonotypic Alphabet (1847).
context_page_description: The Deseret alphabet is a phonemic English-language spelling reform developed between 1847 and 1854 by the board of regents of the University of Deseret under the leadership of Brigham Young, the second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. George D. Watt is reported to have been the most actively involved in the development of the script, as well as being its first serious user.
  In public statements, Young claimed the alphabet was intended to replace the traditional Latin alphabet with an alternative, more phonetically accurate alphabet for the English language. This would offer immigrants an opportunity to learn to read and write English, he said, the orthography of which is often less phonetically consistent than those of many other languages. Similar experiments have not been uncommon, the most well-known of which is the Shavian alphabet.
  The Deseret alphabet was an outgrowth of Young's, and the early LDS Church's, idealism and utopianism. Young and his Mormon pioneers believed "all aspects of life" were in need of reform, and the Deseret alphabet was just one of many ways they sought to bring about a complete "transformation in society".
context_section_description: The Deseret alphabet was developed primarily by a committee made up of the university's board of regents, members of which included church leaders Brigham Young, Parley P. Pratt and Heber C. Kimball. 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 was the greatest; he furthermore "plant[ed] the idea of spelling reform in Brigham Young's mind" through a phonography class he gave after the death of Joseph Smith which Young attended. In addition, William W. Phelps helped "work out the letters" along with Pratt.  
   Before they decided on the Deseret alphabet, the attention of the board of regents was mostly focused on Pitman style alphabets, and in April 1847 Brigham Young nearly purchased 200 pounds (91 kg) of lead type to print books using Pitman's orthography. 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.
  On 29 November 1853, the committee was ready to approve a slightly modified version of the Pitman orthography, when Willard Richards, who had been deathly ill and missed the debate before the vote, saw the proposed alphabet, which spelled the word "phonetic" as "fɷnetic". Richards was quick to condemn it, saying to the committee that in his view "those characters...seem like putting old wine into new 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."
  
  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. One legacy of Pitman's orthography survived, though: the idea that one letter should equal one sound.
caption: 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.
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