The Deseret Alphabet
- Author
- Ryan K. Shosted and N. E. Davis
- Published
- 2026
- Pages
- 315
- Recommended
- Once
Why it’s on the list: The University of Illinois Press calls it the first book dedicated to the full story of the Deseret Alphabet — the nineteenth-century attempt by Latter-day Saint pioneers in Utah to reshape written English, traced back to the linguistic vision of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, through its decline, to its modern revival.
Where I heard about it
- Saved link, October 2026 — the Amazon listing for the paperback (ISBN 0252089421).
About the book
Per the publisher, Shosted (a linguistics professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) and Davis (an educator, engineer and computer language designer) draw on previously unpublished archival material to trace the alphabet’s roots in Joseph Smith’s esoteric translation and “pure language” projects and its role in shaping Latter-day Saint identity. 315 pages, 50 images, 7 tables. Paperback published June 30, 2026. The jacket blurb is from Royal Skousen, editor of The Book of Mormon: The Earliest Text, who notes the alphabet’s arc runs through the 1869 Deseret-script printing of the entire Book of Mormon.
Connections
- Brigham Young — sponsored the alphabet in territorial Utah. See also Brigham Young — American Moses.
- Joseph Smith — the “pure language” and translation projects the authors trace it back to; Joseph Smith — Rough Stone Rolling.
- Adamic Language — the idea of a divine original tongue behind the project.
- Mormonism · Utah.