16 Facts About Deseret alphabet

Deseret alphabet was an outgrowth of Young's, and the early LDS Church's, idealism and utopianism.

Young and the Mormon pioneers believed "all aspects of life" were in need of reform, and the Deseret alphabet was just one of many ways they sought to bring about a complete "transformation in society".

Deseret alphabet was a project of the Mormon pioneers, a group of early followers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which set about building a new society in the Utah desert after the death of the church's founder, Joseph Smith.

The Deseret alphabet was just one of many ways that the Mormon pioneers tried to bring about a complete "transformation in society", as an outgrowth of their idealism and utopianism.

Deseret alphabet was developed primarily by a committee made up of the board of regents of the University of Deseret, members of which included church leaders Brigham Young, Parley P Pratt and Heber C Kimball.

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The University of Deseret alphabet was incorporated on 28 February 1850; less than three weeks later, on 20 March, the new board of regents began to discuss spelling reform.

Considerable non-printed material in the Deseret alphabet was made, including a replica headstone in Cedar City, Utah, some coinage, letters, diaries, and meeting minutes.

One of the more curious items found in the Deseret alphabet is an English-Hopi dictionary prepared by two Mormon missionaries.

Only 500 copies of the full Book of Mormon translated into the Deseret alphabet sold for $2 each, and even Young realized that the venture was too expensive and even the most devout Mormons could not be convinced to purchase and study the Deseret edition books over the books in the traditional orthography.

Contemporary writers noted that thousands of copies of the 15¢ and 20¢ Deseret alphabet primers went unsold, and historian Roby Wentz speculated that the LDS Church at that time had a "cache" of the primers in mint condition, which it was slowly selling off; according to him, one such primer sold for $250 in 1978.

The entire Book of Mormon in the Deseret alphabet has been likewise reprinted, as only 500 copies from the original print run exist, and they can sell on eBay for ˜$7,500.

Each letter in the Deseret alphabet has a name, and when a letter is written on its own it has the value of that name.

Cursive form of the Deseret alphabet was mainly used by two people: George D Watt, and James Henry Martineau.

Deseret alphabet was purposely designed so as to not have ascenders and descenders.

Some Deseret alphabet's contemporaries posited an alternative motivation for its development: increasing the isolation of the early Mormons.

Deseret alphabet was added to the Unicode Standard in March 2001 with the release of version 3.