Are you sure this is English?

Learning to read and write was a unique opportunity for my cousins * living in Cache Valley when the 1868 Deseret Children's Primer was published. Neither you, nor I, would be able to read the pages of this elementary level book. Here is a sample page:

It sure doesn't look like English to me. It is written in the Deseret Alphabet, a phonetic alphabet developed by the Board of Regents at the University of Deseret (later the University of Utah), under the direction of Brigham Young.

The schoolrooms in early Mormon settlements were filled with youth who were born in and spoke the native languages of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, France, Germany, Switzerland, and England with its Welch, Scottish and Irish variations. Add to this group frontier children with very little language training at all. Most of the school children's parents were still trying (or not) to learn American English. In Brigham Young's visionary mind, a new phonetic alphabet would help.

The Deseret alphabet consisted of thirty-eight characters, the basic number of sounds in American English.  Expanding the twenty-six letter alphabet by twelve new symbols enabled the elimination of multiple sounding vowels and consonants. Silent letters were removed (e.g. know, gnat). Capital letters and lower case letter differed only in size, not in the formation of the character. Brigham Young believed that by using a more accurate phonetic alphabet the time required to learn to read and spell would be shortened and could be devoted to other studies.  The Prophet also hoped it would offer immigrants of many and varied nationalities a better opportunity to learn to read and write English. 

Ten thousand copies of the First Deseret Primer were printed and between five and ten thousand copies of the Second Primer. Some copies of the Mormon scriptures were also printed using this alphabet.

After the death of Brigham Young, the use of the Deseret Alphabet dwindled and eventually was discontinued.

How do you feel about the Deseret Alphabet?

If you would like to write using this alphabet, try out this fun website: Deseret Alphabet Translator .

*The cousins spoken of are technically first cousins twice removed, or the first cousins of my Grandfather, Demar McCracken.