Facing starvation and ruin on Utah’s nineteenth-century frontier, Latter-day Saint pioneers launched an audacious experiment to reshape the English language: the Deseret Alphabet. Ryan K. Shosted and N. E. Davis trace the alphabet’s origins in the linguistic vision of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young; explore its contested social, spiritual, and linguistic functions; and examine its decline and modern-day renewal.Shosted and Davis draw on a wide range of sources, including previously...