Deseret Alphabet stuff
The Deseret alphabet was a script created by the settlers of Deseret (now Utah) in the hope that a phonemic spelling reform would help non-native speakers of English to integrate with the community. This had limited success. Its use is now limited to hobbyists; it has no direct relevance to the Utahns or LDS of today.
Unicode includes an encoding for this but it there are certain ways in which this is insufficient.
TODO: write more here. In the meantime, you can read the preamble comments in my mapping file.
Noto-derived font with corrected Vee and supplying some (not all) of these mappings as well as the Unicode mappings for the subset where they exist: DeseretExPUA-Regular.ttf
Vowels
Not giving Roman-text vowel names as they are inconsistent and confusing. The spoken letter names of the vowels would just be their sounds anyway.
| Deseret | Bee Fonts | IPA | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 𐐀 | I, i | /iː/ | Allophones can include /ɪj/. |
| 𐐁, | E, e | /ɛj/ | Might be alternatively written as e.g. /ɛ͡i/ (same principle applying to all subsequent dipthongs). Allophones include /e͡ɪ/, /eː/ etc, but /ɛː/ is a bit too different. Left-facing is an attested alternative way of writing the letter, but also the result of Noto Sans Deseret incorrectly rendering 𐐚. |
| 𐐂 | A, a | /ɑː/ | The “father” out of “father and bother”. May be the same as 𐐉 in accents merging the “father” and “bother” vowels. |
| 𐐃 | %, $ | /oː/ | The “caught” out of “cot and caught”. Often written /ɔː/. May be the same as 𐐉 in accents merging the “cot” and “caught” vowels. |
| 𐐄 | O, o | /əw/ | The “oh” vowel; my realisation would be more like [ωw] (that is, [ɯ˕w]). While /o͡u/ and /o͡ʊ/ are sometimes used as transcriptions, it is contrastive with /ɔw/ in my pronunciation (/əwd/ = 𐐬𐐼 = “ode”, /ɔwd/ = 𐐱𐐶𐐼 = “old”). |
| () | /ɔw/ | ||
| 𐐅 | U, u | /uː/ | Tends to be realised as its allophone /ʉw/. |
| 𐐆 | #, @ | /ɪ/ | |
| () | /ɪː/ | Made up. [ɪː]~[i͡ʌ] = “ear” in my pronunciation. Closest standard representation would be 𐐆𐐆, but I’m hesitant to use that as that might imply /ɪʕɪ/, given as Deseret vowel letters usually cluster with semivowels not other vowels, due to good dipthong representation. | |
| 𐐇 | ~, ` | /ɛ/ | Also resembles the pre-1855 variant form for 𐐊. |
| () | /ɛː/ | Made up. [ɛː]~[e͡ʌ] = “air” in my pronunciation. Not especially close to 𐐁; constrastive with 𐐇: error = 𐐇𐑉𐐲 = [ɛɹɜ], airer = 𐑉𐐲 = [ɛːrɜ]. Closest standard representation would be 𐐇𐐇, but I’m hesitant to use that as that might imply /ɛʕɛ/, given as Deseret vowel letters usually cluster with semivowels not other vowels, due to good dipthong representation. That being said, this is U+E004 and U+E005 in AdamicBee, but not necessarily for the same use? | |
| 𐐈 | &, ^ | /a/ | Also resembles the pre-1855 variant form for 𐐇. |
| 𐐉 | *, / | /ɔ/ | The “cot” out of “cot and caught”, the “bother” out of “father and bother”. Often written /ɒ/. May be the same as 𐐃 in accents merging the “cot” and “caught” vowels. |
| 𐐊 | -, _ | /ɐ/ | The “but” out of “put and but”. Usually written /ʌ/, but my realisation is [ɐ]~[ɑ]. Seems to have established use for /ə/ by some users, which it often isn’t close to in my case, though there are some cases of free variation (which I’m writing /ʌ/). Also resembles the pre-1855 variant form for 𐐡. |
| 𐐋 | +, = | /ɵ/ | The “put” out of “put and but”. By far the closest of the two to /ə/ in my pronunciation. Often written /ʊ/, which is a tad further from /ə/ and a tad closer to /u/ (but still distinct). May be the same as 𐐊 in accents merging the “put” and “but” vowels. |
| | /ə/ | Limited adoption by some historical users for /ə/. Usual practice seems to be to use 𐐊, but in my pronunciation 𐐋 would actually be closer. Also resembles the pre-1855 variant form for 𐐤. | |
| 𐐌 | {, [ | /ɑj/ | |
| 𐐍, | }, ] | /aw/ | (𐐉 with loop) is an earlier, mutually illegible alternative to 𐐍 (𐐂 with loop). |
| 𐐦, | /ɔj/ | Older (and reference) glyph is a crossed 𐐉, newer glyph is a crossed 𐐃. | |
| 𐐧, | /ju/ | Older (and reference) glyph is a crossed 𐐅, newer glyph is much easier to write. |
Semivowels
| Deseret | Name | Bee Fonts | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| 𐐎 | Wu | W, w | /w/ |
| 𐐏 | Yee | Y, y | /j/ |
Consonants
| Deseret | Name | Bee Fonts | IPA | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 𐐐 | H | H, h | /h/ | |
| 𐐑 | Pee | P, p | /p/ | |
| 𐐒 | Bee | B, b | /b/ | |
| 𐐓 | Tee | T, t | /t/ | |
| 𐐔 | Dee | D, d | /d/ | |
| 𐐕 | Chee | C, c | /t͡ʃ/ | |
| 𐐖 | Jee | J, j | /d͡ʒ/ | |
| 𐐗 | Kay | K, k | /k/ | |
| 𐐘 | Gay | G, g | /g/ | |
| 𐐙 | Ef | F, f | /f/ | |
| 𐐚 | Vee | V, v | /v/ | Correctly rendered to visually resemble ɞ; a bug in Noto Sans Deseret renders it to visually resemble ɜ (which by contrast is a attested way of writing 𐐁). |
| 𐐛 | Eth | :, ; | /θ/ | Roman written name resemblance to eth (ð) is a coïncidence; that isn’t what it sounds like, it’s so named due to being the interdental equivalent to Ef. |
| 𐐜 | Thee | |, \ | /ð/ | Similarly, the interdental equivalent to Vee, and the actual ð sound. |
| 𐐝 | Es | S, s | /s/ | |
| 𐐞 | Zee | Z, z | /z/ | Given the Ef/Vee, Eth/Thee, Esh/Zhee thing we have going here, should probably not be read Zed (or Zetto). |
| 𐐟 | Esh | Q, q | /ʃ/ | |
| 𐐠 | Zhee | X, x | /ʒ/ | |
| 𐐡 | Er | R, r | /ɹ/ | Might be used for any /r/ allophone (/ɹ/ is the most common in English, though /ʋ/ isn’t rare either, mine varies between [ɹ̻]~[ʋ]), or even encountered used for /ɚ/ (which is properly [əʴ], but realised [əː] in much of England including my own accent). |
| 𐐢 | El | L, l | /l/ | |
| 𐐣 | Em | M, m | /m/ | |
| 𐐤 | En | N, n | /n/ | Also resembles the pre-1855 variant form of 𐐈. |
| 𐐥 | Eng | >, < | /ŋ/ |
𐐙𐐫𐑉 𐑄𐐮𐑅 𐐮𐑆 𐑋𐐴 𐐶𐑉𐐿 𐐰𐑌𐐼 𐑋𐐴 𐑀𐑊𐐫𐑉𐐨, 𐐻𐐭 𐐺𐑉𐐮𐑍 𐐻𐐭 𐐹𐐰𐑅 𐑄𐐨 𐐮𐑋𐐫𐑉𐐻𐐰𐑊𐐮𐐻𐐨 𐐰𐑌𐐼 𐑄𐐨 𐐨𐐻𐑉𐑌𐐰𐑊 𐑊𐐴𐑁 𐐱𐑂 𐑋𐐰𐑌.
