Second Book of Deseret Alphabet Reader 1868 Mormon GREAT Condition Estate Find

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Second Book of Deseret Alphabet Reader 1868 Mormon GREAT Condition Estate Find:
$149.99

This book is in great vintage condition with no tears markings or damage

The Deseret alphabet is a phonemic English spelling reform developed in the mid-19th century by the board of regents of the University of Deseret (later the University of Utah) under the direction of Brigham Young, second president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In public statements, Young claimed the alphabet was intended to replace the traditional Latin alphabet with an alternative, more phonetically accurate alphabet for the English language. This would offer immigrants an opportunity to learn to read and write English, he said, the orthography of which is often less phonetically consistent than those of many other languages. Similar experiments were not uncommon during the period, the most well-known of which is the Shavian alphabet.

Young also prescribed the learning of Deseret to the school system, stating \"It will be the means of introducing uniformity in our orthography, and the years that are now required to learn to read and spell can be devoted to other studies\".

Development and use

The Deseret alphabet was developed primarily by a committee made up of the university\'s board of regents and church leaders Parley P. Pratt and Heber C. Kimball. The two main contributors to the alphabet\'s character development were Pratt and George D. Watt, a local expert on shorthand systems. In addition, a Frenchman visiting Utah at the time the alphabet was being developed reported that William W. Phelps \"worked out the letters.\"[3] Assistant Church Historian, Andrew Jenson, also reported that the alphabet was produced by a committee composed of Orson Pratt, Parley P. Pratt, Wilford Woodruff, George D. Watt, Robert L. Campbell, and others.

The Deseret alphabet may have been inspired by the phonetic alphabet published by Michael Hull Barton in Boston and the Shaker community at Harvard, Massachusetts from 1830 to 1833. Originally a Quaker, Barton was baptized a Mormon in Portsmouth, New Hampshire around October 1831 (during his phonetic alphabet experiment), but within a few months then converted to Shakerism, although he continued to meet with early Mormon leaders until at least 1844.[4] The alphabet went through at least three major revisions during its first few years.

At least four books were published in the new alphabet: The First Deseret Alphabet Reader, The Second Deseret Alphabet Reader, The Book of Mormon, and a Book of Mormon excerpt called \"First Nephi–Omni\". Additionally published in the Deseret News were various articles and passages from the New Testament, which were printed on a press obtained by Orson Pratt.

Considerable non-printed material in the Deseret alphabet still exists, including one replica headstone in Cedar City,[5][6] some coinage, letters, diaries, and meeting minutes. Pratt supervised the transcription of the complete Bible and the Doctrine and Covenants. One of the more curious items found in the Deseret alphabet is an English-Hopi dictionary.

Despite heavy promotion, the Deseret alphabet was never widely adopted. This reluctance was partly due to prohibitive costs; Pratt estimated that the cost of printing a regular library would be over one million dollars.[citation needed] With modern computer systems lowering the costs associated with typesetting, new material in the Deseret alphabet occasionally appears. Multi-ethnic students in a small UC-Berkeley linguistic class learned the alphabet in two believe this is a 1st edition of the book Deseret Alphabet Second Reader, some people call this the First Reader (you Decide 1868.

This book is in fine condition. Scuffed on corners, spine is intact and extremely tight. I couldn\'t get this copy to open very far, gives the appearance of never having been used.

Pages are white and free of tears, stains and external writing.

All pictures are of this book, not stock photos.