The Structure of the Deseret Alphabet

2.1 The Sounds of English

There have been occasional attempts to make use of the Deseret Alphabet in recent years. The efforts, though commendable, have suffered from a complete misunderstanding of the script’s structure. Part of the problem stems from the poor fit between sound and symbol in current English spelling which many would-be Deseret Alphabet users transfer to the script. The largest source of difficulty; however, comes from ignorance of different types of English pronunciation. In order to understand how to read and write in the Deseret alphabet one must pay very close attention to the information given about pronunciation differences.

Beyond these considerations, the Deseret Alphabet did not differ drastically in its premise from traditional English orthography. Both systems attempt to represent individual phonemes (speech sounds) with individual letters. The Deseret Alphabet comes much closer to this ideal than traditional English orthography which has far fewer letters than there are English sounds.

For example, in English there is a single sound, /k/ (letters between slashes indicate phonemes), which is represented by the letters c, k¸ q, ck, ch, kk and kh in traditional English spelling, as in the words cot, kid, quick, school, trekker and khaki. This state of confusion holds true for most English sounds. A related problem is the existence of multiple sound correspondences for one letter. For example, the digraph (two-letter combination) ch can be sounded in at least four ways as in church, chorus, champagne and yacht. As a result of this convoluted fit between sound and symbol, an English schoolchild must learn that /k/ can be spelled in no less than seven ways, five of them quite common, and that the letters ch can represent at least for sounds (or lack of sound). In stark contrast to the confusing situation of traditional English spelling, the Deseret Alphabet uses only one letter for the /k/ sound and has no letter with multiple sounds attached to it.

It is necessary to learn something about the articulation of English sounds and how they differ from speaker to speaker over time in order to understand classic Deseret spellings like those used in the Deseret Alphabet edition of the Book of Mormon. English, like all languages, is communicated through the arrangement of various individual sounds into various combinations to form words. All languages, including English, have a finite number of distinct sounds.

Standard English has around forty distinct sounds depending on the accent. Some varieties of English have more distinct sounds than others. American English, as spoken in the Southeast and Northeast of the United States, has more distinct sounds than Canadian and Western American English. Because the creators and promulgators of the Deseret Alphabet were from the Northeast, they chose a standard pronunciation very different from what one now finds in Utah and other western states. This has made it difficult for Utahans and other Westerners interested in the Deseret Alphabet to use and understand the script correctly. To avoid further confusion, and to aid in teaching the relationship of English sounds to one another, the International Phonetic Alphabet will be used in describing the sounds of English as represented by the Deseret Alphabet throughout this book.

2.1.1 The International Phonetic Alphabet

The International Phonetic Alphabet (hereafter IPA) is a set of symbols used by the majority of linguists to represent every sound of the world’s languages. Each symbol

represents a single sound and each sound is represented by a single symbol (or digraph). It is customary to enclose phonemes (distinct sounds) in / /. (Phonetic transcriptions are enclosed in [ ], but this is beyond the scope of this book.)

Table 1 lists all of the sounds of English using the IPA and example words written in regular orthography. It is important to notice that how words are spoken and how they are written differ wildly in regular English. Do not be too worried about memorizing all of these new symbols. All that matters is that the concept of one symbol for one sound be mastered. The examples below can always be consulted, but they are of no use if their premise is misunderstood.

As can be seen from Table 1, the symbols of the IPA differ somewhat in their values from the letters of the regular English alphabet. Notice, for instance, that the IPA /i/ sounds like ee as in see not as in sit. Also, it is important to notice new symbols representing sounds for which English currently has no letters. For example, the IPA uses the symbol /θ/ for the sound spelled th in English in words like thigh, thin, ether, author, teeth, sheath. This is a single sound, not a combination of two different sounds. English th actually represents another sound as well. Say the words thy, then, either, other, teethe, sheathe aloud and then read the first set of words given as examples for /θ/. The

Table 1: English phonemes using the IPA

second set of words, though spelled with th just like the first, actually contains a different sound represented in the IPA with the symbol /ð/. These two English phonemes, /θ/ and /ð/, are both pronounced by placing the tip of the tongue between the teeth. They differ only in one respect; the phoneme /θ/ is voiceless whereas /ð/ is voiced. Voiceless sounds

articulated with the vocal folds drawn close together. When the vocal folds are apart, the resultant sound is hissed or whispered. When the folds are drawn together, it creates something of a buzzing sound. Say breath and breathe aloud. Notice how the th in breath sounds hushed compared to the th in breathe. The th in breath is voiceless and the th in breathe is voiced. In the IPA, these two words could be written as /brɛθ/ and /brið/. This same relationship, that of voiceless to voiced consonant, is also true of the pairs /f/ f and /v/ v, /p/ p and /b/ b, /s/ s and /z/ z, /t/ t and /d/ d, /tʃ/ ch and /dʒ/ j, /ʃ/ sh and /ʒ/ zh (as in vision), /k/ k and /ɡ/ g. Each of these pairs is articulated at the same point in the mouth in the same manner save for the position of the vocal folds. The concept of voiced versus voiceless consonants is not critical to understanding the Deseret Alphabet; however, it does play a small role in the canonical ordering of the script.

2.1.2 Practical Phonetic System

It is not necessary to learn the IPA in order to learn the Deseret Alphabet; however, it is necessary to learn to distinguish between each sound of English. Henceforth the IPA, together with a less accurate but more familiar practical system, will be used to explain the sounds of English as represented by the Deseret Alphabet. Table 2 displays the equivalencies between the IPA and the practical system.

Table 2: IPA and its equivalents in the practical system

Table 3 lists twenty-four English words in traditional orthography, the IPA and the practical system. One should at least learn the practical system (and how to refer back to its IPA equivalents) before moving on to descriptions of the Deseret Alphabet.

Table 3: English words in regular spelling, IPA and the practical system

2.1.3 Distinction between /ɔ/ and /ɑ/

At this point, some readers might be feeling overwhelmed by the variety of new symbols. Additionally, some might not recognize the distinctions that have been drawn between certain sounds. Due to dialectal differences, and the inadequacies of conventional English spelling, many English speakers are unaware of the sounds of (so-called) Standard American English. Table 3 lists a pair of words, not and nought, which are pronounced differently in Standard American English (as spoken by newscasters, southerners and many in the northeast) but sounded the same in Canada and most of the American west. The vowel sound in not is represented by /ɑ/ (ah in the practical system) whereas the vowel sound in nought is represented by /ɔ/ (aw in the practical system). For speakers from Utah and elsewhere in the West (as well as many other states), these words sound the same; however, for the majority of English speakers in the world these two vowel sounds are as different as the /i/ ee and /ei/ ey in see and they.1 The Deseret Alphabet had a separate letter for each of these two vowels and both vowels were consistently distinguished in the books printed in Deseret characters. Table 4 gives examples of words with both /ɑ/ ah and /ɔ/ aw. Speakers who are not familiar with this sound contrast should pay special attention.

Table 4: /ɑ/ ah versus /ɔ/ aw

Finally, before introducing each letter of the Deseret Alphabet and its sound value, try to complete the two exercises below. Exercise 1 focuses on IPA understanding. Only the IPA symbols and values used in this book are used. Exercise 2 deals with the practical system already introduced. Both exercises are designed to teach a beginning student with no background in linguistics how to segment the sounds of English. It is vital that the learner become familiar with at least one system before moving on to the description of the Deseret Alphabet.

2.2 Deseret Alphabet Spelling Conventions

This section describes the structure of the Deseret Alphabet in its final, classic form as used in the 1869 printing of the Book of Mormon. Table 5 gives all thirty-eight letters of the Deseret Alphabet as used in 1869 together with their names and values in IPA and the practical system. Each letter is numbered to show the correct order of the alphabet.2

Table 5: Deseret Alphabet with letter names in the IPA and practical system

2.2.1 Deseret Letter Syllabic Values

Each letter of the Deseret Alphabet had a name except, perhaps, the short vowels 𐐮 𐐯 𐐱 𐐳 and the consonant 𐐸. Each consonant symbol had a specific name of one syllable. It is very important to know the name of each consonant. When a consonant symbol appears in isolation, it is to be read as its full name. Thus, the letter 𐐺 stands for /b/ in combination with other letters as in 𐐺𐐮𐑀 /bɪɡ/ big. However, if 𐐺 stands alone in a sentence it is to be read with its full name as /bi/ bee as in 𐐺 𐐸𐐨𐑉 𐐻𐐭𐑌𐐴𐐻 /bi hir tunait/ be here tonight. In older versions of the Deseret Alphabet, this feature was true within words as well. An 1860 gold piece minted by Brigham Young for distribution in the territory had an inscription in the Deseret Alphabet which read 𐐸𐐬𐑊𐐮𐑌𐑅 𐐻𐐭 𐑄 𐑊𐐫𐑉𐐼 Holiness to the Lord where the first word, Holiness, is spelled h-o-l-ih-n-(eh)s with the letter 𐑅 being read as /ɛs/.3 Thankfully, the 1869 version only uses the names of the letters as their value in monosyllabic words. In fact, only the letters 𐐪 𐐷 𐐺 𐑄 𐑀, standing for the words a, ye, be, the, gay are commonly used in the printed Deseret Alphabet books. Exercise 3 offers practice.

2.2.2 Distinction between 𐐱, 𐐪 and 𐐫

A great deal of detail concerning English sounds has been omitted up to this point to ease the burden of coping with too much new information. However, before going further, it is necessary to delve deeper into the nuances of English sounds and dialectal differences. Table 5 has one Deseret character which represents a sound that has not been mentioned yet. This character, 𐐱, is represented as /ɒ/ in the IPA and o in the practical system. This sound is found in British pronunciations of the words not, got, Tom, off and what. It is not a sound of Standard American English.4 In England, where this is a common sound, the sole difference between the words pot, port and part is the nature of the vowel because /ɹ/ is not pronounced after a vowel in British English. These three words, in an English accent, can be written as /pɒt/, /pɔt/ and /pɑt/ in the IPA. In Standard American English, the same three words can be written as /pɑt/, /pɔrt/ and /pɑrt/. The situation between /ɒ/ and /ɑ/ is not the same as that between /ɔ/ and /ɑ/. There is not a single word in American English that has become homophonous with another because American English lacks the sound /ɒ/. This is true because, unlike in British English, American English speakers pronounce /ɹ/ in all positions. Compare this to the situation with /ɹ/ where those dialects of American English which have lost the sound now have a large number of homophonous words.

In some dialects of American English, spoken in parts of New England and Virginia, these three words, pot, port and part, could be written as /pɑt/, /pɔt/ and /pat/ in the IPA. The creator of the Deseret Alphabet was an Englishman who no doubt sounded the letter 𐐱 as /ɒ/. Nevertheless, the pronunciation style chosen was not an English one; rather, it seems to have been based along the lines of a New England standard such as would have been familiar to Brigham Young and Noah Webster. If this is the case, then perhaps 𐐪 and 𐐱 would be more appropriately transcribed as /a/ and /ɑ/ rather than /ɑ/ and /ɒ/. In this book, however, the current American standard will be used.5

Table 6 gives example words containing these vowels together with their British, Standard American and Western American (Utahan) pronunciations written in the IPA.

Table 6: Words with 𐐪, 𐐱 and 𐐫 with IPA transcriptions

* homophonous pairs are in bold

2.2.3 Distribution of /ɑ/ /æ/ /ɔ/ and /ɒ/ in American and British English

As can be seen in Table 6, though British English has an extra vowel sound, Standard American English is the only one without any homophonous pairs. In fact, were in not for one other dialectal quirk, the creators of the Deseret Alphabet might not have bothered with creating the letter 𐐱 in the first place. Historically, the vowel in words like last, path and ask had the same vowel as in lack, pat and at. In England, the vowel in these words shifted to become like the sound in lark, part and art. In most of America, outside of coastal Virginia and parts of New England, the older pronunciation remained. The creators of the Deseret Alphabet were from England and New England. The speech style they chose included the shift of /æ/ a to /ɑ/ ah in these words. Consequently, familiar Book of Mormon phrases like “and it came to pass” are sounded out as and it came to pahss. The same dialects that underwent this change also experienced another one. Words like often, soft and lost were traditionally pronounced with an /ɔ/ aw vowel. In England, these words have changed the vowel from /ɔ/ aw to /ɒ/ o. In British English, because of these changes, the only difference between the words last and lost is the distinction between /ɑ/ ah and /ɒ/ o. In American English, this distinction is unnecessary because words like last retain the older /æ/ a vowel and words like lost retain the older /ɔ/ aw vowel. Thus, solely because they chose a speech style which had undergone these changes, the designers of the Deseret Alphabet were obliged to include the letter 𐐱 in their spellings. In this book, and for all practical purposes, this letter should be treated as just another way to spell /ɑ/ ah. However, British and Australian readers should keep the original pronunciation of this letter in mind.6

Table 7 gives examples of English words that are pronounced differently in England and America. Each word is given in traditional orthography, IPA, the practical system and the Deseret Alphabet as used in the publication of the Book of Mormon. The table makes clear how important the distinction between /ɔ/ and /ɒ/ is for British English and how unnecessary it is for Standard American English.

Table 7: Words which differ between England and America in pronunciation

2.2.4 Distinction between /ə/ and /ʌ/

Astute readers will have already noticed another unexpected feature of the Deseret Alphabet, namely, it does not have a symbol for the vowel /ə/ uh as in sofa. This vowel, often called the schwa or reduced vowel, is the commonest vowel sound in the English language. It is, at the same time, one of the most problematic ones. It is possible that the creators of the Deseret Alphabet left out a /ə/ uh symbol through mistake or misjudgment. It is also possible that they avoided creating a symbol for the unreduced vowel in order to avoid deciding when it was present and when it was not. Many words with a schwa in normal speech have a fuller vowel in careful pronunciation. One can pronounce the word pronounce as /pnaʊns/ pruhnouns or as /ponaʊns/ prohnouns. Which pronunciation is more correct? The first (with a schwa) is more natural but the second is perfectly acceptable in a formal setting (and writing is necessarily formal). The problem with the reduced vowel extends beyond matters of formality. The schwa is yet another vowel that is different things to different people based upon their dialect of English. In most of the United States (especially the West), the sound of a schwa in the word sofa /sof/ sohfuh is identical to the sound of the vowel /ʌ/ u in the word fun /fn/ fun. This causes considerable confusion for Americans trying to understand Deseret spellings. The same speakers who merge /ʌ/ u and /ə/ uh have an additional pronunciation peculiarity. For these speakers, the phoneme /ə/ uh has two allophones (variant realizations of what is, underlyingly, a single sound): /ə/ uh at the beginning and end of a syllable and /ɪ/ ih in a closed syllable (one that begins and ends with consonants). (Phonetically this second sound is really more like the high central unrounded vowel []; however, native speakers are more likely to analyze it as /ɪ/ ih when sounding words out.) The concept of phonemes and allophones is too complicated for this book. Suffice it say that the reduced vowel, at least for most Americans, is a difficult vowel to pin down.

In Britain, Australia, New Zealand and some parts of America the sound of schwa in a word like sofa and the sound of the vowel in a word like but are very different. In northern England the /ʌ/ u sound in but sounds more like the /ʊ/ OO of American English book. In Southern England the sound of /ʌ/ u in but sounds more like a Chicago pronunciation of not. For these reasons, the choice of the symbol /ʌ/ is somewhat arbitrary. British linguists favor the symbol /ɐ/ for this sound because it reflects Southern British English more accurately. This book uses /ʌ/ because it is a more appropriate placeholder for a World English sound. The Deseret Alphabet uses the symbol 𐐲 expressly for /ʌ/ u and not for /ə/ uh (the minor exceptions to this rule will be discussed later). It is important that Americans do not attempt to use 𐐲 for schwa. Table 8 displays a sample of words with schwa or /ʌ/ u and their spellings in the Deseret Alphabet together with variant regional pronunciations.7

Table 8: Examples of /ə/ and /ʌ/ and their realizations in different accents

2.2.5 Deseret Representation of /ə/

How then does the Deseret Alphabet handle /ə/ uh? It would be untrue to say that there is an official method of spelling the sound. However, a careful analysis of the preferences shown by those who transcribed the Book of Mormon into Deseret characters reveals a method to the madness. In general, if schwa occurs word finally it is written with the letter 𐐪 (which is otherwise to be sounded as /ɑ/ ah). This poses no problem for reading because there are no polysyllabic words which end in /ɑ/ ah in the dialect represented. If the schwa is word initial, it is written with the so-called short vowel which most closely approximates a hypothetical unreduced form. For example, about /baʊt/ uhbout is written as 𐐰𐐺𐐵𐐻 with the letter 𐐰 being chosen because the schwa here was presumably considered to be a blurred /æ/ a. Most common English words with an initial schwa begin with a written a so most instances of initial schwa in Deseret are written with 𐐰. A word like enough /nʌf/ uhnuf, however, would never be written with an initial 𐐰. In such a case, the spelling would likely be with 𐐨 and reflect the much more formal /inʌf/ eenuf. Some scholars have assumed that these spelling quirks reflect the Deseret Alphabet’s reliance on traditional English orthography to come up with spellings for schwa.8 This is not entirely true. It is true in as much as traditional English orthography had a huge impact on the Deseret Alphabet’s creators and their perception of what might be the fuller form of a reduced vowel. Nevertheless, the reduced vowel is not uniformly represented by symbols corresponding to traditional English orthography. When schwa occurs word internally, as in words like patience /peiʃns/ peyshuhns or Mormon /mɔmn/ mawrmuhn, the sound is usually represented by the letter 𐐯 or 𐐲. In general, the letter 𐐲 is only used for /ə/ uh word internally in an unstressed syllable which ends in /m/ m or /n/ n. The letter 𐐯 is used in the same environment as well, but more commonly it is used to symbolize schwa before other consonants and especially before /ɹ/ r. Exercise 4 offers more practice.

2.2.6 Rhotic and Non-Rhotic English

Another complexity of Deseret spelling needs explanation. The sound /ɹ/ r is pronounced differently after vowels than before vowels. In most of England and many parts of America, the sound is completely lost after a vowel. In most of America, Ireland and Scotland, the /ɹ/ r remains after a vowel though it might differ in quality. Linguists term those accents of English which keep postvocalic (after-vowel) /ɹ/ r as rhotic and those which do not as non-rhotic. The Deseret Alphabet designers probably spoke a non-rhotic accent; however, the style of speech they chose to represent preserves all postvocalic /ɹ/ r sounds. In doing so, they created a sort of speech compromise. Their chosen standard kept /ɹ/ r in all positions yet used the vowels of a typical non-rhotic accent with one exception. Those vowels which derive from the loss of postvocalic r were almost entirely ignored. In most of England and many parts of America, new vowel sounds were created in those positions where r was lost. Table 9 gives examples of the new vowel sounds created in Southern British English after the loss of postvocalic r.

Table 9: New vowels created in British English after loss of postvocalic r

*In the speech of most young English people only the vowels in fear and fur are still pronounced as shown in this table. The vowel in fair is now generally /ɛ/ and the vowel in poor has merged with /ɔ/.

2.2.7 British /ɜ/ and American /ɹ/

In most of America, the /ɹ/ r sound changed to become a vowel sound itself. This is hard to explain and understand so do not expect to grasp it completely on the first try. Think about the fact that no foreign language has an ‘r’ sound like American English. The Spanish roll their ‘r’ with the tip of the tongue, the Germans and French roll it with the back of the tongue. Even the Scots tap or roll their ‘r’ with the tip of the tongue. In American English, there is no contact whatsoever between the tongue and the roof of the mouth during the production of the /ɹ/ r sound. This is why the IPA symbol is /ɹ/ and not /r/. Like all vowels, American /ɹ/ r is produced by modifying the shape of the vocal tract with the tongue and lips without constricting the escaping air. Consider the words her, fur and fir. If one looks only at the traditional spellings, it appears that each of these words is made of three sounds: an initial consonant, a medial vowel and a final consonant. Actually, each of these words begins with one consonant and ends with only one vowel sound. Say each word aloud and try to separate a vowel sound from the /ɹ/ r sound. It should be quite impossible for an American English speaker to do such an exercise because, as has already been said, the only vowel in those words is /ɹ/ r. This sound, in Standard American English, can be symbolized in the IPA in a number of ways. In this book we will write this single sound with an IPA digraph /ɜɹ/ ur. In English non-rhotic accents the corresponding sound is IPA /ɜ/.9

2.2.8 British /ə/ and American /ɹ/

In American English, this rhotic vowel corresponds not only to British English /ɜ/ but also to British English /ə/ uh. Stressed rhotic vowels in American English correspond to the vowel /ɜ/ uh in British English and unstressed ones correspond to /ə/ uh. Thus a word like learner has two different vowels in British English and can be written in the IPA as /ln/.10 For British speakers, the difference between these two vowels is one of quality and stress whereas for Americans the difference is only one of stress. Though there is no real difference in quality for most (if not all) American English speakers, the unstressed rhotic vowel will be written with the IPA digraph /əɹ/ uhr to better symbolize its Deseret representation. The Deseret Alphabet symbolizes the stressed /ɜɹ/ ur vowel with the combination 𐐲𐑉 and the unstressed /əɹ/ uhr with the combination 𐐯𐑉. Table 10 gives examples of the rhotic vowel and its representation in Deseret. (In England and some parts of America there is a difference between the vowel sounds in the words hurry and furry. This difference is ignored in the Deseret Alphabet spellings for good reason. Words like hurry keep a vowel separate from the following r whereas words like furry are formed by adding a suffix to word which already had a rhotic vowel. No two words are distinguished solely by this difference.)

Table 10: Examples of /ɜɹ/ and /əɹ/ and their realizations in different accents

2.2.9 Distinguishing /æ/ /ɛ/ and /ei/ before /ɹ/

The creators of the Deseret Alphabet also contrasted the vowels /æ/ /ɛ/ and /e/ before /ɹ/.11 These contrasts are still found in Great Britain, parts of the South and Northeast. Westerners do not have this contrast, though they might be aware of it from exposure to newscasters. Table 11 gives examples of words with these contrasting sounds.

Table 11: Examples of /æ/ /ɛ/ and /e/ before /ɹ/

2.2.10 Distinguishing /ju/ and /u/ after Coronal Consonants

Finally, before moving on to more intense practice with the Deseret Alphabet, there is one more major dialectal difference that must be discussed. Most Americans pronounce the letters u and ew as /ju/ yoo after consonants that do not involve the tip of the tongue (coronal consonants). Thus, the words few, cute, muse, hew and puke are always pronounced as /fju/ fyoo, /kjut/ kyoot, /mjuz/ myooz, /hju/ hyoo and /pjuk/ pyook by most Americans whereas the words tune, dew, sue, crew, lewd and new, though spelled with the same vowels, are not pronounced as /ju/ yoo but as /u/ oo.12 In the nineteenth century, when the Deseret Alphabet was created, the speech standard included a distinction between words like dew and do. To an extent, the official pronunciation of American newscasters and most British speakers still maintains this contrast. However, at the time the Deseret Alphabet was being used such contrasts extended to more environments than they do in any standard. For example, today an Englishman might chide an American for pronouncing toon and tune both as /tun/ toon rather than as /tun/ toon and /tjun/ tyoon as is the standard in England. However, few Englishmen today would pronounce Jew as /ʤju/ jyoo or blue as /blju/ blyoo as was standard in the nineteenth century. In the Deseret Alphabet, the digraph 𐐮𐐭 was used to represent this /ju/ yoo sound. The classic Deseret spellings include this distinction. Table 12 gives more examples of such pronunciation differences.

Table 12: Examples of /ju/ after coronal consonants

2.2.11 Distinguishing /ɔ/ and /o/ before /ɹ/

Nineteenth century English, and the English of a minority of Southern speakers, contrasts words like for, morning, bored from four, mourning and board. Though this contrast is no longer common in modern English dialects, it is rigorously maintained in the nineteenth century Deseret spellings. Maintaining this contrast is actually quite useful in Deseret spellings as it keeps words like for and four from being spelled the same. Table 13 gives some examples of words with this contrast.13

Table 13: Examples of /ɔ/ and /o/ before /ɹ/