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.

DeseretBee FontsIPANotes
𐐀I, 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.
𐐂A, 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.
𐐄O, 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/Made up. Contrastive with /əw/ in my pronunciation (/əwd/ = ode”, /ɔwd/ = old”). Later comment: in other words it is an exact equivalent to standard 𐐉𐐎 and I should just use that. Why did I make this again? I should probably reällocate this to something more worthy.
𐐅U, 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

DeseretNameBee FontsIPA
𐐎WuW, w/w/
𐐏YeeY, y/j/

Consonants

DeseretNameBee FontsIPANotes
𐐐HH, h/h/
𐐑PeeP, p/p/
𐐒BeeB, b/b/
𐐓TeeT, t/t/
𐐔DeeD, d/d/
𐐕CheeC, c/t͡ʃ/
𐐖JeeJ, j/d͡ʒ/
𐐗KayK, k/k/
𐐘GayG, g/g/
𐐙EfF, f/f/
𐐚VeeV, 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).
𐐛Eth:, ;/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.
𐐜Thee|, \/ð/Similarly, the interdental equivalent to Vee, and the actual ð sound.
𐐝EsS, s/s/
𐐞ZeeZ, z/z/Given the Ef/Vee, Eth/Thee, Esh/Zhee thing we have going here, should probably not be read Zed (or Zetto).
𐐟EshQ, q/ʃ/
𐐠ZheeX, x/ʒ/
𐐡ErR, 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).
𐐢ElL, l/l/
𐐣EmM, m/m/
𐐤EnN, n/n/Also resembles the pre-1855 variant form of 𐐈.
𐐥Eng>, </ŋ/

𐐙𐐫𐑉 𐑄𐐮𐑅 𐐮𐑆 𐑋𐐴 𐐶𐑉𐐿 𐐰𐑌𐐼 𐑋𐐴 𐑀𐑊𐐫𐑉𐐨, 𐐻𐐭 𐐺𐑉𐐮𐑍 𐐻𐐭 𐐹𐐰𐑅 𐑄𐐨 𐐮𐑋𐐫𐑉𐐻𐐰𐑊𐐮𐐻𐐨 𐐰𐑌𐐼 𐑄𐐨 𐐨𐐻𐑉𐑌𐐰𐑊 𐑊𐐴𐑁 𐐱𐑂 𐑋𐐰𐑌.