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. To address some misconceptions which occasionally circulate: its use is now limited to hobbyists, it has no liturgical role, and indeed it has no direct relevance to the vast majority of Utahns or Brighamites today, most of whom are probably entirely unaware of it. It was created after Joseph Smith Jr had already been assassinated and, as such, is unrelated to the purported Reformed Egyptian script of the Anton transcript, and similarly unrelated to the postulated Adamic language, except insofar as it is indirectly named after a term claimed to be Jaredite in origin; furthermore, it only ever had any relevance to Brighamites, not to the “prairie saints” such as Emma Smith who rejected Brigham Young’s leadership claims.
See also: IBUS tables for keyboard input.
Private Use Area
Unicode includes an encoding for this but it there are certain ways in which this is insufficient; I have produced a PUA (Unicode Private Use Area) scheme extending the older CSUR/UCSUR scheme that predates the standard Unicode block. For more information, see the comments in my modified version of the conversion table between the CSUR scheme and the standard Unicode block.
Noto-derived font with corrected Vee letter and supplying some (not all) of these mappings as well as the Unicode mappings for the subset where they exist: DeseretExPUA-Regular.ttf. Note that this modification is old, unmaintained, and has become less crucial for general use since the glyph of the Vee letter was finally corrected upstream in late 2024.
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.
