A Campaign for Utah Heritage

RESTORE
the ALPHABET

𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻

"That the pure language may be restored" — Utah, 1854

Sign the Petition Read the Manifesto
↓   Scroll
Our Declaration

The Manifesto

We believe
Utah was built by people who were not like other people. People who crossed a continent on foot because they believed, with their whole souls, that they were building something the world had never seen before. We honor that. We are that. We have the bumper stickers to prove it.
We believe
language is identity. The words we use — and the letters we use to write them — are not arbitrary. They are the shape of who we are. Our pioneers knew this. That is why they built us our own alphabet. Not a font. Not a logo. An entire alphabet. Because that is the kind of people they were.
We believe
the Deseret Alphabet is the most remarkable and most neglected artifact of Utah heritage. Designed here. Printed here. Taught in our schools. Inscribed on our coins. And then — somewhere between the railroad arriving and everyone deciding the Latin alphabet was fine actually — quietly set down and never picked back up.
We believe
forgetting is a choice. And so is remembering. And so, frankly, is having a state cooking pot but not a state alphabet. We have opinions about this.
We believe
there is something quietly heartbreaking — and, let's be honest, a little funny — about a people so committed to being distinct that they invented their own written language, who can no longer read it. That is a level of commitment to a bit that deserves, at minimum, a historical marker.
We believe
that 𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻 — the word that names this alphabet, this state, and this dream — means honeybee. The honeybee does not look at the hive and say "well, the Latin alphabet seems to be working fine for everyone else." The honeybee builds. The honeybee tends. The honeybee preserves. We are trying very hard to be the honeybee.
We believe
Utah does not need to look like everywhere else. Sound like everywhere else. Write like everywhere else. There are forty-nine other states doing that. They are fine. We wish them well. This is not about them.
We believe
that designating the Deseret Alphabet as a secondary written language of the State of Utah is not a radical act. It is a conservative one. It conserves something real. Something ours. Something worth keeping.
We believe
the peculiar, beautiful, ambitious thing that was built here — the part that was never going to blend in and knew it and didn't care — deserves to be restored.
And we believe
you feel it too. Or you wouldn't still be reading. Welcome. We saved you a seat.
The Forgotten Story

How Utah Got — and Lost — Its Alphabet

In 1854, Utah's pioneers did something no American community had done before or since: they built their own phonetic alphabet from scratch. Thirty-eight characters. One for every sound in the English language. Designed to be learned in weeks, not years.

It was called the Deseret Alphabet. And for fifteen years, it was everywhere.

"With a very few additions, it would represent every sound used in the construction of any known language — a step and partial return to a pure language which has been promised unto us." — Brigham Young, 1854
1847
The Idea Takes Root
Mormon pioneers settle the Salt Lake Valley and almost immediately begin discussing spelling reform. A new alphabet, they believed, would unite thousands of converts speaking dozens of languages.
1854
The Alphabet Is Born
The University of Deseret's board of regents approves a 38-character phonetic alphabet — entirely original, unlike any script on earth. It is taught in Utah schools almost immediately.
1860
On the Coins
A $5 gold coin is embossed with Deseret characters reading "Holiness to the Lord." Street signs, shop fronts, and newspaper columns appear in the new script across Salt Lake City.
1869
The Book of Mormon, Reprinted
The entire Book of Mormon is published in the Deseret Alphabet. Only 500 copies sell. That same year, the Transcontinental Railroad arrives in Utah. The outside world has entered the hive.
1877
The Dream Ends
With the death of its most passionate champion, the alphabet experiment quietly ends. Unsold primers sit in warehouses. Transcribed bibles gather dust in archives. The letters begin to be forgotten.
Now
The Restoration Begins
Digital typography has made the alphabet freely usable for the first time in 150 years. A new generation of Utahns is discovering what their great-great-grandparents built. You're part of that now.
Learn the Letters

The Deseret Alphabet

Click any letter to learn its name and sound. Then try writing your name below.

Select a letter to begin
Write your name in Deseret
Join the Movement

Sign the Petition

We are calling on the Utah State Legislature to designate the Deseret Alphabet as a secondary written language of the State of Utah. Add your name to the record.

1,847
Utahns have signed so far
𐐔𐐯𐑅𐐨𐑉𐐯𐐻

You're in the record.

Your name has been added to the petition. The honeybee thanks you.
Now go tell someone.

Share on X Copy Link