Deseret Alphabet [was: Re: Regularized Inglish]

On Wed, 29 Sep 1999, From Http://Members.Aol.Com/Lassailly/Tunuframe.Html w=
rote:

> ai propouz iu iuuz enodher st=E4ndaard.
> ai h=F6=F6rd oor r=E4=E4d uans dhat e moormen or somuan
> uidh rilijes bakgraund had dizaaind e fonetik
> skript kuait difrent from dhe uan ai'm iuzing
> rait nau. it uaz e v=E4ri f=EBnni uan uidh lots ov
> vauelz, bet ai kan't rim=E4mber huu hi uaz.
> =E4ni bodi haz en aidie ?=20
The Mormon connection is correct; you're talking about the Deseret
Alphabet. It was a scheme developed by Orson Pratt (among others) and
promoted by Brigham Young to help the growing number of non-English
speaking Mormon converts come to grips with English pronunciation (if
not orthography). As a Mormon and a linguist, I've been interested in
the Deseret Alphabet for a while now. There doesn't seem to be any=20
particular logic to the system other than to create something which is
definitely *not* derived from the Latin alphabet. The characters are
all invented, though some bear accidental similarities to some Latin
characters. My first impression of the look of the Deseret Alphabet was
that it was Tamil or Malayalam.=20

It is possible to write phonetically accurate English using the Deseret
Alphabet. In fact, I once had the idea of looking at journals written in
the DA to try and recover the pronunciation of English of the time; I
still think it would be an interesting project.

I created a Deseret Alphabet font for Macintosh; if anyone is
interested, I can send it along with a key.=20

> mathias
>=20
--
Dirk Elzinga
dirk.elzinga@m.cc.utah.edu=09=09     "All grammars leak."
http://www.u.arizona.edu/~elzinga/                 -Edward Sapir