Deseret Alphabet Portal

The Deseret Alphabet was created at the direction of Brigham Young as a means of helping immigrants to Utah to be able to learn the English language easier. Several books were printed in the Deseret Alphabet, two Readers, the first part of the Book of Mormon, and the entire Book of Mormon. Newspaper articles were occasionally printed in the Deseret Alphabet.

The alphabet didn’t gain wide acceptance and fell out of use when Brigham Young died. Since then, it has remained relatively unknown until recently. With the creation of the World Wide Web on the internet, curiosity about the Deseret Alphabet rose and is becoming more and more popular among hobbyist as a novel way of writing.

The general public is also being introduced to the Deseret Alphabet as various sites publish articles on this “oddity” and strange part of “Mormon” history. Because of this more and more people are beginning to look up the Deseret Alphabet to find more information about it, and possibly learn to read and write in it themselves. This site aims to provide enough information for those users as a portal, or launching pad, for finding other resources about the Deseret Alphabet. Included on this site are scanned images of the first two Readers of the Deseret Alphabet, and part of the third book that was printed. Also included on this site are instructions on learning to read and write in the Deseret Alphabet that was created by other people that are skilled in language and writing who happen to also find the Deseret Alphabet interesting.