[Page 33]Abstract: The Deseret Alphabet represents a bold but failed attempt by 19th century LDS Church leaders to revolutionize English language orthography. As 21st century members of the LDS Church, we can benefit from this less than successful experiment by studying the 1869 Deseret Alphabet Book of Mormon and learning how early church members most likely pronounced Book of Mormon names.

Geographic regions, cultural influences, family associations, and the passage of time are some of the many factors that affect our way of speaking, including the way we pronounce specific words and phrases. An outstanding example of differences in pronunciation, owing to its harsh conclusion, is found in the book of Judges. After Jephthah and the men of Gilead fought with and defeated the Ammonites, “the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said unto Jephthah, wherefore passedst thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? We will burn thine house upon thee with fire” (Judges 12:1). This insolent behavior by the men of Ephraim led to a war with the men of Gilead and resulted in heavy losses among the Ephraimites. After the battle, as the Ephraimite survivors tried to escape back to their own lands,

the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay; Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: [Page 34]and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand (Judges 12:5–6).

The Ephraimites were unable to say the word shibboleth (שבולת) correctly, pronouncing it without the sh sound (stemming from the letter shin, ש) at the beginning of the word.¹ This peculiarity of speech among the Ephramites led to many of them being slaughtered while trying to cross the Jordan River.

We do not know how Nephi, Alma, Mormon or other historical characters from the Book of Mormon pronounced names of people and places during their time, but we do have an achievable way of knowing how early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints likely pronounced them. However, for most contemporary readers of the Book of Mormon, this knowledge has been essentially locked away in an obscure, mid-nineteenth century script known as the Deseret Alphabet (DA). The objective of this article is to provide the reader with the key to unlock this heretofore ciphered knowledge.

Brief History of the Deseret Alphabet

The Deseret Alphabet (DA) was championed by Brigham Young as a way of helping immigrants learn how to read and properly pronounce words in the English language. Speaking of the DA, President Young boldly declared:

The advantages of this alphabet will soon be realized, especially by foreigners. Brethren who come here knowing nothing of the English language will find its acquisition greatly facilitated by means of this alphabet, by which all the sounds of the language can be represented and expressed with the greatest ease. As this is the grand difficulty foreigners experience in learning the English language, they will find a knowledge of this alphabet will greatly facilitate their efforts in acquiring at least a partial English education. It will also be very advantageous to our children. 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.²

[Page 35]Unfortunately, Brigham Young’s hopes for the DA would not be realized, as its use died out with the passing of the prophet himself. Hubert H. Bancroft observed that “within a few years [of its introduction to the public] the alphabet fell into disuse, and is now remembered only as a curiosity.”³ Larry Wintersteen wrote that:

This new alphabet appears not to have met the needs of the people nor did it interest them. Its use and development was hindered by temple building, farming, settling, new doctrine, and possibly little faith in following their prophet, president and leader. The Deseret Alphabet died with Brigham Young in 1877, yet it appears to have been a noble experiment towards a spelling reform. Perhaps it would have worked under different situations and different environment.⁴

Although the idea of the DA was the brainchild of Brigham Young, its primary creator appears to have been George Darling Watt, an early convert to the Church in the British Isles. In October 1853, the Board of Regents of the Deseret University, now the University of Utah, appointed Parley P. Pratt, Heber C. Kimball, and George D. Watt to “a committee to prepare a small school-book in characters founded on some new system of orthography, whereby the spelling and pronunciation of the English language might be made uniform and easily acquired.”⁵ Fifteen months after the committee was formed, the Deseret News heralded the creation of the DA by announcing that “after many fruitless attempts to render the common alphabet of the day subservient to their purpose, they found it expedient to invent an entirely new and original set of characters.”⁶ This pronouncement marked the birth of the DA.

While not a language in itself, the Deseret Alphabet was created as an alternative method of phonetically spelling English words using a unique set of characters. Stanley B. Kimball, a descendent of Heber C. Kimball, observed that “no one knows the origin of [the Deseret Alphabet’s] strange characters, but certainly Watt’s knowledge of phonography was [Page 36]fundamental.”⁷ The first public appearance of the DA was on the front page of the Deseret News on Wednesday, February 16, 1859. Along with a brief introduction to the alphabet, the newspaper printed the first fifteen verses of the fifth chapter of Matthew in the DA, along with a pronunciation guide (Figure 1) that went through only minor modifications in later years. The opening paragraph in the 1859 Deseret News article gave a less than glowing endorsement of the new alphabet:

We present to the people the Deseret Alphabet, but have not adopted any rules to bind the taste, judgment or preference of any. Such as it is you have it, and we are sanguine that the more it is practised and the more intimately the people become acquainted with it, the more useful and beneficial it will appear.”⁸

According to Wintersteen, “the Deseret News carried brief articles in the Deseret Alphabet until May, 1860. At that time they were discontinued without comment. Four years later, May, 1864, they reappeared running for only six months.”⁹ Shortly after the 1859 introductory article appeared in the Deseret News, the New York Herald newspaper published an editorial entitled “The New Mormon Alphabet.” The article expressed that “the Mormons are a ‘very peculiar people’” and that the Deseret Alphabet “is calculated to make the faithful still more peculiar than anything that distinguishes them from other mortals.”¹⁰ The Quincy Daily Whig was even more disparaging of the new alphabet when it printed the following:

[Page 37]It seems to be the determination of the Mormons to alienate and, as far as possible, disconnect themselves from American language as well as society. Their social system is now the abhorrence of every civilized nation on the face of the globe, and unless the strongest measures are used, they will entirely divorce themselves from our laws, and their present intention is, to forget, if possible, the English language itself.¹¹

It was not until 1868 that any books were printed in the DA. The first of these books was called The Deseret First Book by the Regents of the Deseret University (| D~sIr~t F_rst B+k b{ | RIg~nts *v | D~sIr~t Y#un#v_rs#t#). This was a brief, 36-page elementary school primer with forty-nine short “lessons” and some multiplication tables at the back. This was followed in the same year by The Deseret Second Book – a longer, seventy-two page primer with fifty-three lessons and additional multiplication tables at the back of the book. Ten thousand copies of each of these books were printed.¹²

The Deseret Alphabet and the Book of Mormon

During 1869, 8,000 copies of Part 1 (PART I) of the Book of Mormon in the DA were printed.¹³ Part 1 was composed of the books of 1 Nephi through the Words of Mormon — what we would call the small plates of Nephi today. In late 1869, 500 copies of the complete Book of Mormon were printed, making it one of the rarest editions ever published.¹⁴ Both Part 1 and the complete Book of Mormon were set from the 1852 Liverpool edition (the Third European Edition) and were published in New York by Russell Brothers for the Deseret University. As such, the DA Book of Mormon was one of three editions published in New York during the nineteenth century, including the 1830 Palmyra and 1858 Wright editions.

Although only four books in the DA were ever printed during the nineteenth century, it appears that the intent was to print additional books. The Improvement Era reported that:

[Page 38]From a storage area of the Church Historian’s Office in May 1967, a package of papers was unwrapped and found to be manuscript copies in the Deseret Alphabet of the Bible, the Doctrine and Covenants, Deseret Phonetic Speller, and the Catechism by John Jaques. The papers, ready for the printer, had lain undisturbed for so long that their very existence had been forgotten.¹⁵

Interestingly, with the completion of the Salt Lake Temple still more than two decades away, all four books published in the DA showed an etching of the temple with a weather vane rather than the iconic upright Angel Moroni, which was placed on the temple spire in 1892 (see Figures 2 and 3). The weather vane in the drawings appears to be visually similar to the one placed on top of the clock tower of the original Nauvoo temple (see Figure 4).¹⁶

Modifications to the Deseret Alphabet

By the late 1860s, the shape of the DA characters had gone through some minor modifications. The most significant change was that the character for the long a¹⁷ sound (3 in 1859) was flipped horizontally to be E in 1868. More than likely this change was made so that the long a character would not be confused with the number 3. All four published books displayed [Page 39]the same pronunciation guide, with one exception — the spelling, and thus pronunciation, of the word alphabet in the title. In the two 1858 primers the word was spelled &LFEB~T (ăl-fā-bĕt¹⁸ or /ælfæbɛt/ in International Phonetic Alphabet [IPA]), while in the two books printed in 1869 (Part 1 and the complete Book of Mormon) the spelling was &LF&B~T (ăl-fă-bĕt or /ælfæbɛt/ in IPA). Interestingly, in John Walker’s Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, the pronunciation of alphabet is also rendered ăl-fă-bĕt, in line with the 1869 DA method.¹⁹

A Modern Revival

In the last two decades, there has been a modest resurgence of interest in the DA. A new collection of books (Deseret Alphabet Classics) has been published. With nearly thirty books in the collection, including Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, H. G. Wells’ The Time Machine, and Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet, readers can enjoy many classic works in the DA script. Numerous blogs and discussion forums have also sprung up on the Internet for those interested in learning and discussing the Deseret Alphabet. In addition, a very useful website has been created that allows users to translate normal Latin text into the DA.²⁰ Multiple free DA fonts can be downloaded from the Internet and used in Microsoft Word and Excel, including the DeseretBee, HoneyBee and ZarahemlaBee fonts.²¹ I have [Page 40]used the HoneyBee font to present DA characters in this article. The fictitious Republic of Molossia, “a sovereign, independent nation, located in and completely surrounded by territory of the United States,” has adopted “the Deseret Alphabet as an alternate English writing method” for its people.²² The website’s non-LDS creators present information in both Latin and DA script. John H. Jenkins, the publisher of the Deseret Alphabet Classics, has even published the LDS triple combination (Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price) in the DA and has made it freely available for download as a PDF file.²³

With this renewed interest in the DA, changes have been made to the DA characters to make them somewhat easier to read and write. Below is a chart of DA characters from 1859 to the present. In the column labeled 2015 in Figure 7, five of the sounds are shown with two distinct characters, separated by a forward slash (/). The first character is the modern uppercase preference, while the second character is preferred for lowercase use. For lowercase use, the loop has been replaced by a dot above the character for the sounds au, ow and g. The use of the dot above the character makes it easier to read, especially when the font size is small.

The Deseret Alphabet and the Pronunciation Guide

Mary Jane Woodger, in the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, wrote an informative article on how the Book of Mormon Pronunciation Guide (PG) was developed over the last century. Concerning the involvement of the DA in this process, she wrote:

One early attempt at harmonizing pronunciation may have taken place during the publication of the Book of Mormon in the Deseret Alphabet (1852–1869). When Brigham Young, Orson Pratt, and other pioneers developed the phonetic Deseret Alphabet they had the means available to represent how they were pronouncing the Nephite names. Their pronunciation would surely have differed little from that of Joseph Smith. This major undertaking of examining Book of Mormon proper names in mid-nineteenth-century pronunciation as recorded in the Deseret Alphabet has yet to be done. Though there is nothing concrete in this speculation, [Page 41]such an unfulfilled possibility is worthy of mention because the Deseret Alphabet edition of the Book of Mormon represents the only attempt made by church leaders in the 1800s at setting a consistent pronunciation for Nephite proper names. (emphasis added)²⁴

Indeed, the first published guide to pronunciation of Book of Mormon names, the Pronouncing Vocabulary, was not accomplished until the 1920 LDS edition of the Book of Mormon. This Pronouncing Vocabulary contained 284 names, as compared to the 343 found in the current PG. This difference is due to the Pronouncing Vocabulary containing “mostly proper names of Book of Mormon origin, with [only] some Biblical names included.”²⁵

While several histories of the DA have been written over the years, surprisingly little research has been conducted into the relationship between the DA and the pronunciation of Book of Mormon names, perhaps because of the difficulty in learning the DA script. In 2000, [Page 42]Frederick M. Huchel published a short article in the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies in which eighteen names from the DA Book of Mormon were compared to PG names from the LDS edition of the Book of Mormon,.²⁶ While the effort was commendable, the article was riddled with errors, most likely because neither the author nor the editors fully understood the DA script. The Journal reissued a corrected version of the article, but even then, errors persisted. For example, the word Deseret was correctly written D`sir`t in the DA script, but the pronunciation was incorrectly rendered as dēs-ē-rĕt (/disirɛt/ in IPA)by the author in both the original and corrected versions of the article. The correct pronunciation should have been written dĕs-ē-rĕt (/dɛsirɛt/ in IPA) based on the DA spelling. Even the pronunciation from the Book of Mormon PG was incorrectly written by the author as dēz′-a-rĕt (/dizərɛt/ in IPA) rather than dĕz-a-rĕt′ (/dɛzərɛt/ in IPA) as rendered in the PG. This article by Huchel was the only attempt at serious academic research that I was able to locate.

I compared the PG found in the current (2013) LDS edition of the Book of Mormon to the names in the 1869 DA version. During this process, I was able to identify and record the DA spelling, and thus the pronunciation of each proper noun. In addition, I found nineteen Book of Mormon names that are absent from the current PG. Most of these are biblical names, but some are unique Book of Mormon words. For example, among the many names that the Nephites used for their monetary values, as identified in Alma Chapter 11, the senine and limnah are both found in the PG, but the seon and leah are not. Egyptian is listed, but not Arabian. And strangely, Gomorrah is present, but not Sodom. A complete list of these missing names is given at the end of the Appendix.

I do not propose that the DA pronunciation is the ultimate standard by which Book of Mormon names should be judged. In fact, it is almost certain that those pronunciations do not accurately reflect how the names were originally spoken in their native dialects. As Woodger reasoned about the 1981 PG, the same can be said for the DA pronunciation:

We can concur with Daniel Ludlow, who served as the secretary to the Scripture Publication Committee, that we are “ninety-nine percent sure that we do not pronounce such names as Lehi and Nephi correctly” (that is, as they themselves did). … In following the [pronunciation] guide we can be assured that [Page 43]if we are wrong in pronouncing Book of Mormon names, we will at least all be wrong together.²⁷

Woodger added that the committee that developed the 1981 PG was given four general guidelines to follow, with uniformity among the members as the principal objective:

1. Do not try to relate Book of Mormon names with Hebrew or Egyptian names.
2. Do not try to think of how the Nephites might have pronounced their own names.
3. Simplify where possible.
4. The main objective should be uniformity.²⁸

Limitations and Peculiarities of the Deseret Alphabet

Although the creators of the DA dreamed of it as a perfect overhaul of the English spelling system, it was not without its flaws and peculiar aspects. One of these flaws is the absence of the mid-central vowel sound, or schwa, written as /ǝ/ in IPA. Although the short u sound (u in the PG, ʌ in IPA, and identified as a short o in Figure 1) was available in the DA (_), it was not the same as, and could not adequately replace the schwa sound. The second vowel in the word alphabet (/ælfəbet/ in IPA) is a schwa sound. As noted earlier, in the two 1868 DA primers the second vowel of the word alphabet was written as a long a (ā in the PG, /e/ in IPA, and E in the DA), while in 1869 it was changed and written as a short ah (ă in the PG, /æ/ in IPA, and & in the DA), possibly to agree with Walker or other pronouncing dictionaries of the time. This highlights the confusion caused by not having a character for the schwa sound in the DA.

The omission of the schwa character also poses problems for modern readers when trying to pronounce DA Book of Mormon words. The name Alma, for instance, is /ælmə/ in IPA and ăl′ma in the PG. Both methods display the word with an unstressed final schwa sound. However, the DA spelling of the word is &LM&, which when spelled phonetically would be /æl·mæ/ in IPA or ăl-mă using the PG method. Not only is this spelling [Page 44]awkward, but it is also probably not how the early members of the Church pronounced the name. More than likely they pronounced Alma the same way that we do today, with a schwa sound at the end of the word.

The absence of the schwa character in the DA script is understandable because it was not an officially recognized vowel sound in the English language at the time, and the word itself did not enter the English lexicon until 1895, well after the development of the DA.²⁹ The word schwa came into the English language from German, but its root is “from Hebrew šəwā’, probably from Syriac (nuqzē) šwayyā.”³⁰ Even though the word is a recent addition to the English language, the schwa sound itself has been a part of the spoken language for close to a thousand years:

Towards the end of the Old English period, i.e., after the beginning of the eleventh century, more and more graphemic differences begin to disappear, a fact suggesting progressive neutralization of phonemes occurring in this position. … Thus English sees the advent of the schwa, the reduced, mid, central, murmured, mixed, indeterminate, colorless vowel, whose “neutrality” has been branded, by one school of language historians, as a defect responsible for some of the most drastic grammatical changes in the history of the language, the decrease of the number of distinctive inflexions in Middle English.³¹

Another apparent oddity of the DA, at least for modern American English speakers, is the presence of these three separate DA characters: A as in art, % as in aught, and * as in not . Today, many Americans would pronounce the vowels in all three of the words — art, aught and not — the same way. Of the 363 names that appear in the DA Book of Mormon, ninety-one, or twenty-five percent of them, contain one of these three DA characters (A, % and *). Of those ninety-one occurrences, the DA character A is used sixty-nine percent of the time, * is used twenty percent of the time, and % is only used eleven percent of the time. Interestingly, though, A was used almost exclusively as the final sound in a word. Of its sixty-three occurrences, sixty-one of those are final sounds. For [Page 45]example, Aha, Elijah, Isaiah, Nephihah, Zarahemla and Zemnarihah are all words that end with A in the DA. Today, most Americans would end three of those names (Aha, Nephihah and Zemnarihah) with an ah sound (ä in the PG, /a/ in IPA, and described as a short au sound in the DA). The other three names (Elijah, Isaiah and Zarahemla) are usually pronounced with a schwa sound at the end of the word. So, did the early Church members say those words in the same way as we do today, or is the DA an accurate representation of how they actually spoke?

Unlike the character A, with only one exception * and % are never used as final sounds in DA Book of Mormon names. The use of the character * in DA names appears to be very straightforward. It is used in names such as Agosh, Com, John, Josh, Nimrod and Omni — all names that we would expect to have the DA short au sound.

%, on the other hand is more complicated. Although rarely used in DA names, it is found in the names Calno, Cohor (second o), Jordan, Korihor (second o), Mormon (first o) and Nehor. For convention, I will refer to the character % as an open o sound. In Tables 1 and 2 it is represented by the symbol ȯ (an O with a dot above it), which is the same symbol that is often used in the modern DA script. Very often this character appears together with the letter r, although not always. The pronunciation was neither a DA long o (as in open), nor a DA short au (as in not). The DA Pronunciation Guide (Figure 1) identifies it as a long au (as in aught).

John Walker, in his Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, identified four distinct sounds for the letter a (see Figure 8), and four for the letter o (see figure 9). Interestingly, Walker observed that “the long broad o, as in nor, for, or” was “like the broad a,” that is, “the broad German a, as in [Page 46]fall, wall, wa-ter.”³² This suggests that the o in nor, for and or would have been pronounced much like the a in fall, wall and water, which appears to agree with the DA pronunciation.

Kenneth R. Beesley explained that because many of the early members of the Church spoke British or New England dialects of English, these three sounds in the DA (A, * and %) would have been pronounced distinctly from each other. Beesley wrote:

The original name for the Deseret A letter, which is /ɑ/ in IPA, was “ah”, using a common convention in English romanization whereby “ah” represents an unrounded low-back vowel. Most English speakers use this vowel in the words father, bah and hah. In England, and in much of New England, this vowel is distinct from the first vowel in bother, represented in Deseret Alphabet as * or in IPA as /ɒ/, which is a rounded low-back vowel; thus for these speakers the words father and bother do not rhyme. But the rounded /ɒ/ has collapsed into unrounded /ɑ/ in General American English, so the words do rhyme for most Americans. Similarly, the Deseret % letter , IPA /ɔ/, represents a mid-low back rounded vowel that has also collapsed into /ɑ/ for many American speakers. It can still be heard quite distinctly in the speech of many New Yorkers, Philadelphians, and New Englanders in general.³³

An interesting discussion among experts in the field of linguistics has been occurring for at least the last eighty years regarding a so-called “card-cord merger” in Utah. As linguist David Bowie explained it,

English speakers along the Wasatch Front of Utah exhibit a variable linguistic feature that can at least loosely be described as /ɔɹ/ merging into /ɑɹ/, so that the word cord is produced as card—thus, what is referred to as Utah’s CARD-CORD merger. It was first mentioned in any sort of scholarly writing by Pardoe (1935) and has been the subject of a slow but steady stream of study ever since. Even though there is evidence that the feature was extant in the mid- to late-nineteenth century [at the time that the DA was developed] among the initial generations of English-speaking natives of the region, it does [Page 47]not seem to have become a socially salient feature until the 1950s, possibly the 1940s, with stigmatization of the feature by locals following quickly after that.³⁴

“Utah’s card-cord merger” helps explain why selected words — Mormon and ward, for example — spoken by some members of the LDS Church in Utah are pronounced differently than by members of the LDS Church in other areas of the United States. It might also explain how some words were assigned their phonetic spellings in the DA Book of Mormon.

 

Table 1³⁵

Current Book of Mormon PG		DA Book of Mormon
Spelling	Pronunciation	Pronunciation	Spelling
Chemish	kĕm´ĭsh	shēm-ĭsh	Qim@q
Com	kōm	käm	K/m
Corihor/Korihor	kōr´ĭ-hōr	kōr-ī-hȯr	Kor[h$r
Cumeni	kū´ma-nī	kĭū-mē-nī	K@umin[
Cumorah	ka-mōr´a	kĭū-mōr-ä	K@umora
Deseret	dĕz-a-rĕt´	dĕs-ē-rĕt	D`sir`t
Hearthom	hē-är´thum	her-thum	H-r;-m
Liahona	lē´a-hō´na	lī-ă-hō-nă	L[^hon^
Melchizedek	mĕl-kĭz´a-dĭk	mĕl-chĭz-ē-dĕk	M`lc@zid`k
Mormon	mōr´mun	mȯr-mun	M$rm-n
Muloki	myū´la-kī	mul-ō-kī	M-lok[
Zedekiah	zĕd´a-kī´a	zĕd-ē-kī-ä	Z`dik[a

Book of Mormon Names

Table 1 contains a selection of twelve DA Book of Mormon names taken from the complete list of names found in the Appendix. The [Page 48]names in Table 1 were selected because their DA pronunciation differs markedly from the modern pronunciation as presented in the current Book of Mormon PG. The pronunciation key for these names in Table 1 is found in Table 2. I will discuss here only a few of the differences in pronunciation, but the reader is invited to study the names more thoroughly.

As noted in Table 1, the Cu in Cumorah in the DA script is pronounced like the first cu in cucumber. The same is true for the Cu in Cumeni. In contrast, in the current Book of Mormon PG, the Mu in Muloki is pronounced myū (as in music), while in the DA it is pronounced mu (as in mud). The PG pronunciation of Deseret is dĕz-a-rĕt, with a z sound in the first syllable, and a schwa sound in the middle syllable. In the DA it is dĕs-ē-rĕt, with an s sound in the first syllable, and a long e in the middle syllable. Finally, the first syllable in Mormon in the PG is mōr (as in more), while in the DA it is mȯr. In the prior section, we saw that this open o sound (ȯ) was pronounced like “the broad German a, as in fall, wall, wa-ter.” Pronounced this way, the phonetic spelling of the first syllable of Mormon could be written as mär rather than mōr (using the PG method).

 

Table 2³⁶

a	about (schwa)		ē	eat, mete, me		ou	about
ă	ask, pat, map		er	permit		u	jump
ā	able, bake, way		ĭ	it, him, mirror		ū	rule, boot, two
ä	alms, father, call		ī	idle, fine, deny		u̇	book, look, put
ĕ	ebb, met, second		ō	over, bone, know		ȯ	open o (unused)

On a final note, the DA script does not provide any hints on how to separate words into syllables. Therefore, to separate the DA names into syllables in Tables 1 and the table in the Appendix, I followed a set of standard syllabication rules.³⁷

Summary

[Page 49]Although not successful as a revolution in English language orthography, the DA was a brave attempt to simplify our often-complicated English writing system. However, as modern readers of the Book of Mormon, we can benefit from the pronunciation information coded into DA script by its creators. Indeed, the DA Book of Mormon can help us open a window into how the early members of the Church most likely pronounced Book of Mormon names. This is, perhaps, the greatest benefit that can come from studying Brigham Young’s less than successful writing experiment.

Appendix

The table below contains a complete list of Book of Mormon names. A pronunciation guide follows. The # column indicates the number of variances between standard English and Deseret Alphabet Pronunciation.

 

Book of Mormon Pronunication Guide		Deseret Alphabet Book of Mormon
Spelling	Pronunciation	#	Pronunciation	Spelling
Aaron	ĕr´an	1	ār-un	Er-n
Abel	ā´bul	1	ā-bĕl	Eb`l
Abinadi	a-bĭn´a-dī	2	ăb-ĭn-ăd-ī	&b@n^d[
Abinadom	a-bĭn´a-dum	2	ā-bĭn-ăd-um	Eb@n^d-m
Abish	ā´bĭsh	0	ā-bĭsh	Eb@q
Ablom	ăb´lum	1	ăb-lun	&bl-n1
Abraham	ā´bra-hăm	1	ā-bră-hăm	Ebr^h^m
Adam	ăd´um	0	ăd-um	&d-m
Agosh	ā´gäsh	0	ā-gäsh	Eg/q
Aha	ā´hä	0	ā-hä	Eha
[Page 50]Ahah	ā´hä	0	ā-hä	Eha
Ahaz	ā´hăz	0	ā-hăz	Eh^z
Aiath	ī´uth	1	ă-ī-uth	&[-;
Akish	ā´kĭsh	0	ā-kĭsh	Ek@q
Alma	ăl´ma	1	ăl-mă	&lm^
Alpha	ăl´fa	1	ăl-fä	&lfa
Amaleki	a-măl´a-kī	2	ăm-ăl-ē-kī	&m^lik[
Amalekite	a-măl´a-kīt	2	ăm-ăl-ĕ-kīt	&m^l`k[t
Amalickiah	a-măl´a-kī´a	2	ăm-ăl-ĭ-kī-ä	&m^l@k[a
Amalickiahite	a-măl´a-kī´a-īt	2	ăm-ăl-ĭ-kī-ä-īt	&m^l@k[a[t
Amaron	a-mā´rän	2	ăm-ă-run	&m^r-n
Amgid	ăm´gĭd	0	ăm-gĭd	&mg@d
Aminadab	a-mĭn´a-dăb	2	ā-mĭn-ă-dăb	Em@n^d^b
Aminadi	a-mĭn´a-dī	2	ăm-ĭn-ă-dī	&m@n^d[
Amlici	ăm´lĭ-sī	0	ăm-lĭ-sī	&ml@s[
Amlicite	ăm´lĭ-sīt	0	ăm-lĭ-sīt	&ml@s[t
Ammah	ăm´mä	0	ăm-ä	&ma
Ammaron	ăm´a-rän	2	ăm-ă-run	&m^r-n
Ammon	ăm´un	0	ăm-un	&m-n
Ammonihah	ăm-a-nī´hä	0	ăm-un-ī-hä	&m-n[ha
Ammonihahite	ăm-a-nī´hä-īt	0	ăm-un-ī-hä-īt	&m-n[ha[t
Ammonite	ăm´a-nīt	0	ăm-un-īt	&m-n[t
Ammoron	ăm´ōr-än	1	ăm-ōr-un	&mor-n
Amnigaddah	ăm-nĭ-găd´ä	0	ăm-nĭ-găd-ä	&mn@g^da
Amnihu	ăm-nī´hū	1	ăm-nī-hĭū	&mn[h@u
Amnor	ăm´nōr	1	ăm-nur	&mn-r
Amoron	a-mōr´än	2	ăm-ō-run	&mor-n
Amos	ā´mus	0	ā-mus	Em-s
[Page 51]Amoz	ā´muz	1	ā-mus	Em-s
Amulek	ăm´yū-lĕk	1	ăm-yĭū-lĕk	&my@ul`k
Amulon	ăm´yū-län	2	ăm-yĭū-lun	&my@ul-n
Amulonites	ăm´ya-län´īts	2	ăm-yĭū-lun-īts	&my@ul-n [ts
Anathoth	ăn´a-tōth	2	ăn-ă-thäth	&n^;/;
Angola	ăn-gō´la	1	ăn-gō-lä	&ngola
Ani–Anti	ăn´ī–ăn´tī	0	ăn-ī–ăn-tī	&n[–&nt[
Anti–Nephi–Lehi	ăn´tī–nē´fī–lē´hī	0	ăn-tī–nē-fī–lē-hī	&nt[–Nif[–Lih[
Anti–Nephi–Lehies	ăn´tī–nē´fī–lē´hīz	0	ăn-tī–nē-fī–lē-hīz	&nt[–Nif[–Lih[z
Antiomno	ăn-tē-äm´nō	1	ăn-tĭ-äm-nō	&nt@/mno
Antion	ăn´tē-än	2	ăn-tĭ-un	&nt@-n
Antionah	ăn-tē-än´a	2	ăn-tĭ-ō-nä	&nt@ona
Antionum	ăn-tē-ō´num	1	ăn-tĭ-ō-num	&nt@on-m
Antiparah	ăn-tĭ-pär´a	2	ăn-tĭ-pā-rä	&nt@pera
Antipas	ăn´tĭ-päs	1	ăn-tĭ-pus	&nt@p-s
Antipus	ăn´tĭ-pus	0	ăn-tĭ-pus	&nt@p-s
Antum	ăn´tum	0	ăn-tum	&nt-m
Archeantus	är-kē-ăn´tus	0	är-kē-ăn-tus	Arki^nt-s
Arpad	är´păd	0	är-păd	Arp^d
Assyria	a-sĭr´ē-a	2	ă-sĭr-ĭ-ä	&s@r@a
Babylon	băb´ĭ-län	1	băb-ĭ-lun	B^b@l-n
Bashan	bā´shän	1	bă-shun	B^q-n
Benjamin	bĕn´ja-mĭn	1	bĕn-jă-mĭn	B`nj^m@n
Bethabara	bĕth-ăb´a-ra	2	bĕth-ăb-ā-ră	B`;^ber^
Boaz	bō´ăz	0	bō-ăz	Bo^z
Bountiful	boun´tĭ-ful	1	boun-tĭ-fu̇l	B]nt@f=l
Cain	kān	0	kān	Ken
[Page 52]Calno	kăl´nō	1	kăl-nȯ	K^ln$
Carchemish	kär-kĕm´ĭsh	1	kär-shē-mĭsh	Karqim@q
Cezoram	sē-zōr´um	0	sē-zōr-um	Sizor-m
Chaldeans	kăl-dē´unz	0	kăl-dē-unz	K^lde-nz
Chaldees	kăl-dēz´	0	kăl-dēz	K^ldiz
Chemish	kĕm´ĭsh	2	shēm-ĭsh	Qim@q
Cherubim	chĕr´a-bĭm	1	chĕr-ū-bĭm	C`rub@m
Cohor	kō´hōr	1	kō-hȯr	Koh$r
Com	kōm	1	käm	K/m
Comnor	kōm´nōr	2	käm-nur	K/mn-r
Corianton	kōr-ē-ăn´tun	1	kōr-ĭ-ăn-tun	Kor@^nt-n
Coriantor	kōr-ē-ăn´tōr	2	kōr-ĭ-ăn-tur	Kor@^nt-r
Coriantum	kōr-ē-ăn´tum	1	kōr-ĭ-ăn-tum	Kor@^nt-m
Coriantumr	kōr-ē-ăn´ta-mer	1	kȯr-ĭ-ăn-tum-er	K$r@^nt-mr
Corihor	kōr´ĭ-hōr	2	kōr-ī-hȯr	Kor[h$r
Corom	kōr´um	0	kōr-um	Kor-m
Cumeni	kū´ma-nī	2	kĭū-mē-nī	K@umin[
Cumenihah	kū-ma-nī´hä	2	kăm-ē-nī-hä	K^min[ha2
Cumom	kū´mum	2	kum-äm	K-m/m
Cumorah	ka-mōr´a	2	kĭū-mōr-ä	K@umora
Curelom	kū-rē´lum	2	kĭūr-läm	K@url/m
Deseret	dĕz-a-rĕt´	2	dĕs-ē-rĕt	D`sir`t
Desolation	dĕs-ō-lā´shun	0	dĕs-ō-lā-shun	D`soleq-n
Edom	ē´dum	0	ē-dum	Id-m
Egypt	ē´jĭpt	0	ē-jĭpt	Ij@pt
Egyptian	ē-jĭp´shun	0	ē-jĭp-shun	Ij@pq-n
Elam	ē´lum	0	ē-lum	Il-m
Elijah	ē-lī´ja	1	ē-lī-jä	Il[ja
[Page 53]Emer	ē´mer	1	ē-mĕr	Im`r
Emron	ĕm´rän	1	ĕm-run	~mr-n
Enos	ē´nus	0	ē-nus	In-s
Ephah	ē´fä	1	ĕf-ä	~fa
Ephraim	ē´frĕm or ē´frum	2	ē-fră-ĭm	Ifr^@m
Esrom	ĕz´rum	1	ĕs-rum	~sr-m
Ethem	ē´thum	1	ē-thĕm	I;`m
Ether	ē´ther	1	ē-thĕr	I;`r
Eve	ēv	0	ēv	Iv
Ezias	ē-zī´us	0	ē-zī-us	Iz[-s
Ezrom	ĕz´rum	0	ĕz-rum	~zr-m
Gad	găd	0	găd	G^d
Gadiandi	găd-ē-ăn´dī	1	găd-ĭ-ăn-dī	G^d@^nd[
Gadianton	găd-ē-ăn´tun	1	găd-ĭ-ăn-tun	G^d@^nt-n
Gadiomnah	găd-ē-äm´na	2	găd-ĭ-äm-nä	G^d@/mna
Gallim	găl´ĭm	0	găl-ĭm	G^l@m
Gazelem	ga-zā´lĭm	2	găz-ē-lĕm	G^zil`m
Geba	gē´ba	1	gē-bä	Giba
Gebim	gē´bĭm	0	gē-bĭm	Gib@m
Gibeah	gĭb´ē-a	1	gĭb-ē-ä	G@bia
Gid	gĭd	0	gĭd	G@d
Giddianhi	gĭd-ē-ăn´hī	1	gĭd-ĭ-ăn-hī	G@d@^nh[
Giddonah	gĭd-dō´nä	0	gĭd-ō-nä	G@dona
Gideon	gĭd´ē-un	0	gĭd-ē-un	G@di-n
Gidgiddonah	gĭd-gĭd-dō´nä	1	gĭd-gĭd-ȯ-nä	G@dg@d$na
Gidgiddoni	gĭd-gĭd-dō´nī	0	gĭd-gĭd-ō-nī	G@dg@don[
Gilead	gĭl´ē-ud	0	gĭl-ē-ud	G@li-d
[Page 54]Gilgah	gĭl´gä	0	gĭl-gä	G@lga
Gilgal	gĭl´gäl	1	gĭl-gul andgĭl-găl	G@lg-l andG@lg^l3
Gimgimno	gĭm-gĭm´nō	2	jĭm-jĭm-nō	J@mj@mno
Gomorrah	ga-mōr´a	2	gō-mär-ä	Gom/ra
Hagoth	hā´gäth	0	hā-gäth	Heg/;
Hamath	hā´muth	1, 0	hā-măth andhā-muth	Hem^; andHem-;4
Hearthom	hē-är´thum	2	her-thum	H-r;-m
Helam	hē´lum	0	hē-lum	Hil-m
Helaman	hē´la-mun	1	hē-lā-mun	Hilem-n
Helem	hē´lĕm	0	hē-lĕm	Hil`m
Helorum	hē-lōr´um	1	hē-lȯr-um	Hil$r-m
Hem	hĕm	0	hĕm	H`m
Hermounts	her´mounts	0	her-mounts	H-rm]nts
Heshlon	hĕsh´län	1	hĕsh-lun	H`ql-n
Heth	hĕth	0	hĕth	H`;
Himni	hĭm´nī	0	hĭm-nī	H@mn[
Horeb	hōr´ĕb	0	hōr-ĕb	Hor`b
Immanuel	ĭm-măn´yū-ĕl	1	ĭm-ăn-yĭū-ĕl	#m^ny@u`l
Irreantum	ĭ-rē-ăn´tum	0	ĭr-ē-ăn-tum	#ri^nt-m
Isaac	ī´zĭk	1	ī-zuk	{z-k
Isabel	ĭz´a-bĕl	2	ĭs-ă-bĕl	#s^b`l
Isaiah	ī-zā´a	2	ī-zā-yä	{zeya
Ishmael	ĭsh´mul or ĭsh´mĕl	2	ĭsh-mă-ĕl	#qm^`l
Ishmaelite	ĭsh´mul-īt or ĭsh´mĕl-īt	2	ĭsh-mă-ĕl-īt	#qm^`l[t
Israel	ĭz´rĕl or ĭz´rul	2	ĭz-ră-ĕl	#zr^`l
[Page 55]Israelite	ĭz´rĕl-īt or ĭz´rul-īt	2	ĭz-ră-ĕl-īt	#zr^`l[t
Jacob	jā´kub	0	jā-kub	Jek-b
Jacobite	jā´kub-īt	0	jā-kub-īt	Jek-b[t
Jacobugath	jā´ka-bū´găth	1	jā-kub-ĭū-găth	Jek-b@ug^;
Jacom	jā´kum	0	jā-kum	Jek-m
Jared	jĕr´ud	2	jār-ĕd	Jer`d
Jaredite	jĕr´a-dīt	2	jār-ĕd-īt	Jer`d[t
Jarom	jĕr´um	1	jār-um	Jer-m
Jashon	jā´shän	1	jā-shun	Jeq-n
Jeberechiah	jĕb-a-ra-kī´a	2	jē-bĕr-ē-kī-ä	Jib`rik[a
Jehovah	jē-hō´va	1	jē-hō-vä	Jihova
Jeneum	jĕn´ē-um	1	jo-nē-um	Joni-m5
Jeremiah	jĕr-a-mī´a	2	jĕr-ē-mī-ä	J`rim[a
Jershon	jĕr´shän	2	jer-shun	J-rq-n
Jerusalem	ja-rū´sa-lĕm	2	jē-rū-să-lĕm	Jirus^l`m
Jesse	jĕs´ē	1	jĕ-sĭ	J`s@
Jew	jū	1	jĭū	J@u
John	jän	0	jän	J/n
Jonas	jō´nus	0	jō-nus	Jon-s
Jordan	jōr´dun	1	jȯr-dun	J$rd-n
Joseph	jō´zĕf	0	jō-zĕf	Joz`f
Josephite	jō´zĕf-īt	0	jō-zĕf-īt	Joz`f[t
Josh	jäsh	0	jäsh	J/q
Joshua	jäsh´ū-wa	2	jäsh-ĭū-ä	J/q@ua
Jotham	jō´thum	0	jō-thum	Jo;-m
Judah	jū´da	2	jĭū-dä	J@uda
Judea	jū-dē´a	2	jĭū-dē-ä	J@udia
[Page 56]Kib	kĭb	0	kĭb	K@b
Kim	kĭm	0	kĭm	K@m
Kimnor	kĭm´nōr	1	kĭm-nȯr	K@mn$r
Kish	kĭsh	0	kĭsh	K@q
Kishkumen	kĭsh-kū´mun	2	kĭsh-kĭū-mĕn	K@qk@um`n
Korihor	kō´rĭ-hōr	2	kōr-ī-hȯr	Kor[h$r
Kumen	kū´mun	2	kĭū-mĕn	K@um`n
Kumenonhi	kū´ma-nän´hī	2	kĭū-mēn-än-hī	K@umin/n h[
Laban	lā´bun	0	lā-bun	Leb-n
Lachoneus	la-kō´nē-us	1	lā-kō-nē-us	Lekoni-s
Laish	lā´ĭsh	0	lā-ĭsh	Le@q
Lamah	lā´mä	0	lā-mä	Lema
Laman	lā´mun	0	lā-mun	Lem-n
Lamanite	lā´mun-īt	0	lā-mun-īt	Lem-n[t
Lamoni	la-mō´nī	1	lā-mō-nī	Lemon[
Lebanon	lĕb´a-nän	2	lĕb-ă-nun	L`b^n-n
Lehi	lē´hī	0	lē-hī	Lih[
Lehi–Nephi	lē´hī–nē´fī	0	lē-hī–nē-fī	Lih[–Nif[
Lehonti	lē-hän´tī	0	lē-hän-tī	Lih/nt[
Lemuel	lĕm´yūl	2	lĕm-yĭū-ĕl	L`my@u`l
Lemuelite	lĕm´yūl-īt	2	lĕm-yĭū-ĕl-īt	L`my@u`l[t
Levi	lē´vī	0	lē-vī	Liv[
Liahona	lē´a-hō´na	2	lī-ă-hō-nă	L[^hon^
Lib	lĭb	0	lĭb	L@b
Limhah	lĭm´hä	0	lĭm-hä	L@mha
Limher	lĭm´her	1	lĭm-hĕr	L@mh`r
Limhi	lĭm´hī	0	lĭm-hī	L@mh[
Limnah	lĭm´nä	0	lĭm-nä	L@mna
[Page 57]Luram	lūr´um	1	lĭū-rum	L@ur-m
Madmenah	măd-mĕn´a	2	măd-mē-nä	M^dmina
Mahah	mā´hä	0	mā-hä	Meha
Maher–shalal–hash–baz	mā´her–shăl-ăl–hăsh´bäz	2	mā-hĕr–shăl-ul–hăsh–băz	Meh`r–q^l -l–h^q–b^z
Malachi	măl´a-kī	1	măl-ă-kī	M^l^k[
Manasseh	ma-năs´a	2	măn-ă-sĕ	M^n^s`
Manti	măn´tī	0	măn-tī	M^nt[
Mary	mĕ´rē	2	mār-ĭ	Mer@
Mathoni	ma-thō´nī	1	mă-thō-nī	M^;on[
Mathonihah	măth-ō-nī´hä	0	mă-thō-nī-hä	M^;on[ha
Medes	mēdz	0	mēdz	Midz
Melchizedek	mĕl-kĭz´a-dĭk	2	mĕl-chĭz-ē-dĕk	M`lc@zid`k
Melek	mē´lĕk	0	mē-lĕk	Mil`k
Michmash	mĭk´măsh	0	mĭk-măsh	M@km^q
Middoni	mĭd-dō´nī	0	mĭd-ō-nī	M@don[
Midian	mĭd´ē-un	1	mĭd-ĭ-un	M@d@-n
Migron	mī´grän	2	mĭg-run	M@gr-n
Minon	mī´nän	1	mī-nun	M[n-n
Moab	mō´ăb	0	mō-ăb	Mo^b
Mocum	mō´kum	0	mō-kum	Mok-m
Moriancumer	mōr-ē-ăn´ka-mer	2	mōr-ĭ-ăn-kĭū-mĕr	Mor@^nk@u m`r
Morianton	mōr-ē-ăn´tun	1	mōr-ĭ-ăn-tun	Mor@^nt-n
Moriantum	mōr-ē-ăn´tum	1	mōr-ĭ-ăn-tum	Mor@^nt-m
Mormon	mōr´mun	1	mȯr-mun	M$rm-n
Moron	mōr´un	0	mōr-un	Mor-n
Moroni	mō-rō´nī	0	mōr-ō-nī	Moron[
Moronihah	mō-rō-nī´hä	0	mōr-ō-nī-hä	Moron[ha
[Page 58]Moses	mō´zus	2	mō-zĕz	Moz`z
Mosiah	mō-sī´a ormō-zī´a	1, 2	mō-sī-ä	Mos[a
Mulek	myū´lĕk	2, 1	mĭū-luk and mĭū-lĕk	M@ul-k andM@ul`k6
Muloki	myū´la-kī	2	mul-ō-kī	M-lok[
Nahom	nā´hum	0	nā-hum	Neh-m
Naphtali	năf´ta-lī	1	năf-tā-lī	N^ftel[
Nazareth	năz´a-rĕth	1	năz-ă-rĕth	N^z^r`;
Neas	nē´äs	2	nē-ăz	Ni^z
Nehor	nē´hōr	1	nē-hȯr	Nih$r
Nephi	nē´fī	0	nē-fī	Nif[
Nephihah	nē-fī´hä	0	nē-fī-hä	Nif[ha
Nephite	nē´fīt	0	nē-fīt	Nif[t
Neum	nē´um	0	nē-um	Ni-m
Nimrah	nĭm´rä	0	nĭm-rä	N@mra
Nimrod	nĭm´räd	0	nĭm-räd	N@mr/d
Noah	nō´a	1	nō-ä	Noa
Ogath	ō´găth	0	ō-găth	Og^;
Omega	ō-mā´ga	1	ō-mā-gä	Omega
Omer	ō´mer	1	ō-mĕr	Om`r
Omner	äm´ner	1	äm-nĕr	*mn`r
Omni	äm´nī	0	äm-nī	*mn[
Onidah	ō-nī´da	1	ō-nī-dä	On[da
Onihah	ō-nī´hä	0	ō-nī-hä	On[ha
Onti	än´tī	0	än-tī	*nt[
Ophir	ō´fer	0	ō-fer	Of-r
Oreb	ōr´ĕb	0	ōr-ĕb	Or`b
Orihah	ō-rī´hä	0	ōr-ī-hä	Or[ha
[Page 59]Paanchi	pā-ăn´kī	0	pā-ăn-kī	Pe^nk[
Pachus	pā´kus	1	păk-us	P^k-s
Pacumeni	pā-kyū´mĕn-ī	2	păk-ĭū-mē-nī	P^k@umin[
Pagag	pā´gäg	1	pā-găg	Peg^g
Pahoran	pa-hōr´un	1	pā-hōr-un	Pehor-n
Palestina	păl-a-stī´na	2	păl-ĕ-stī-nä	P^l`st[na
Pathros	pā´thrōs	1	pă-thrus	P^;r-s
Pekah	pē´kä	0	pē-kä	Pika
Pharaoh	fā´rō or-fĕ´rō	0, 1	fā-rō	Fero
Philistine	fĭl´a-stēn	2	fĭl-ĭ-stĭn	F@l@st@n
Rabbanah	ra-băn´a	2	răb-ā-nä	R^bena
Rahab	rā´hăb	0	rā-hăb	Reh^b
Ramah	rä´mä	1	rā-mä	Rema
Ramath	rā´muth	0	rā-muth	Rem-;
Rameumptom	răm-ē-ump´tum	0	răm-ē-ump-tum	R^mi-mpt-m
Remaliah	rĕm-a-lī´a	2	rĕm-ā-lī-ä	R`mel[a
Rezin	rē´zĭn	0	rē-zĭn	Riz@n
Riplah	rĭp´lä	0	rĭp-lä	R@pla
Riplakish	rĭp-lā´kĭsh	1	rĭp-lă-kĭsh	R@pl^k@q
Ripliancum	rĭp-lē-ăn´kum	1	rĭp-lĭ-ăn-kum	R@pl@^nk-m
Salem	sā´lĕm	0	sā-lĕm	Sel`m
Sam	săm	0	săm	S^m
Samaria	sa-mĕr´ē-a	2	săm-ā-rĭ-ä	S^mer@a
Samuel	săm´yū-ĕl	1	săm-yĭū-ĕl	S^my@u`l
Sarah	sĕr´a	2	sār-ä	Sera
Sariah	sa-rī´a	2	sā-rī-ä	Ser[a
Saul	säl	1	sȯl	S$l
Seantum	sē-ăn´tum	0	sē-ăn-tum	Si^nt-m
[Page 60]Sebus	sē´bus	0	sē-bus	Sib-s
Seezoram	sē-zōr´um	0	sē-zōr-um	Sizor-m
Senine	sē´nīn	0	sē-nīn	Sin[n
Senum	sē´num	0	sē-num	Sin-m
Seraphim	sĕr´a-fĭm	1	sĕr-ă-fĭm	S`r^f@m
Seth	sĕth	0	sĕth	S`;
Shared	shā´rud	1	shār-ĕd	Qer`d
Shazer	shā´zer	1	shā-zĕr	Qez`r
Shearjashub	shĭr-jā´shub	2	shē-er-jā-shub	Qi-rjeq-b
Shelem	shē´lĕm	0	shē-lĕm	Qil`m
Shem	shĕm	0	shĕm	Q`m
Shemlon	shĕm´län	1	shĕm-lun	Q`ml-n
Shemnon	shĕm´nän	1	shĕm-nun	Q`mn-n
Sherem	shĕr´um	2	shēr-ĕm	Qir`m
Sherrizah	shĕr-ī´za	2	sher-ĭ-zä	Q-r@za
Sheum	shē´um	0	shē-um	Qi-m
Shez	shĕz	0	shĕz	Q`z
Shiblom	shĭb´lum	0	shĭb-lum	Q@bl-m
Shiblon	shĭb´lun	0	shĭb-lun	Q@bl-n
Shiblum	shĭb´lum	0	shĭb-lum	Q@bl-m
Shiloah	shī-lō´a	1	shī-lō-ä	Q[loa
Shilom	shī´lum	0	shī-lum	Q[l-m
Shim	shĭm	0	shĭm	Q@m
Shimnilom	shĭm-nī´läm	2	shĭm-nī-lun	Q@mn[l-n7
Shinar	shī´när	1	shī-nĕr	Q[n`r
Shiz	shĭz	0	shĭz	Q@z
Shule	shūl	1	shĭūl	Q@ul
Shum	shum	0	shum	Q-m
[Page 61]Shurr	sher	0	sher	Q-r
Sidom	sī´dum	0	sī-dum	S[d-m
Sidon	sī´dun	0	sī-dun	S[d-n
Sinai	sī´nī	2	sī-nā-ĭ	S[ne@
Sinim	sī´nĭm	0	sī-nĭm	S[n@m
Siron	sī´run	0	sī-run	S[r-n
Syria	sĭr´ē-a	2	sĭr-ĭ-ä	S@r@a
Tarshish	tär´shĭsh	0	tär-shĭsh	Tarq@q
Teancum	tē-ăn´kum	0	tē-ăn-kum	Ti^nk-m
Teomner	tē-äm´ner	1	tē-äm-nĕr	Ti/mn`r
Thummim	thum´ĭm		Word not used in the body of the Book of Mormon
Timothy	tĭm´a-thē	2	tĭm-ō-thĭ	T@mo;@
Tubaloth	tū´ba-läth	2	tĭū-bā-luth	T@ubel-;
Uriah	yū-rī´a	2	yĭū-rī-ä	Y@ur[a
Urim	yūr´ĭm		Word not used in the body of the Book of Mormon
Uzziah	yū-zī´a	2	u-zī-ä	_z[a
Zarahemla	zĕr-a-hĕm´la	2	zār-ă-hĕm-lă	Zer^h`ml^
Zebulun	zĕb´yū-lun	1	zĕb-yĭū-lun	Z`by@ul-n
Zechariah	zĕk´a-rī´a	2	zĕk-ă-rī-ä	Z`k^r[a
Zedekiah	zĕd´a-kī´a	2	zĕd-ē-kī-ä	Z`dik[a
Zeezrom	zē-ĕz´rum	0	zē-ĕz-rum	Zi`zr-m
Zemnarihah	zĕm-na-rī´hä	1	zĕm-nā-rī-hä	Z`mner[ha
Zenephi	zēn´a-fī	1	zē-nē-fī	Zinif[
Zeniff	zē´nĭf	0	zē-nĭf	Zin@f
Zenock	zē´nuk	0	zē-nuk	Zin-k
Zenos	zē´nus	0	zē-nus	Zin-s
Zerahemnah	zĕr-a-hĕm´nä	2	zēr-ă-hĕm-nä	Zir^h`mna
[Page 62]Zeram	zē´rum	0	zē-rum	Zir-m
Zerin	zē´rĭn	0	zē-rĭn	Zir@n
Ziff	zĭf	0	zĭf	Z@f
Zion	zī´un	0	zī-un	Z[-n
Zoram	zō´rum	0	zōr-um	Zor-m
Zoramite	zōr´um-īt	0	zōr-um-īt	Zor-m[t

 

Names and terms in the Book of Mormon, but not in the current Pronunciation Guide:
Arabian			ă-rā-bĭ-un	&reb@-n
Assyrian			ă-sĭr-ĭ-un	&s@r@-n
Cush			kush	K-q
Damascus			dă-mă-skus	D^m^sk-s
David			dā-vĭd	Dev@d
Eden			ē-dĕn	Id`n
Galilee			găl-ĭ-lē	G^l@li
Gentile			jĕn-tīl	J`nt[l
Hebrew			hē-brū	Hibru
Jesus			jē-zus	Jiz-s
Leah			lē-ä	Lia
Lucifer			lĭū-sĭ-fĕr	L@us@f`r
Mammon			măm-un	M^m-n
Nob			näb	N/b
Seon			sē-un	Si-n
Shublons			shub-lunz	Q-bl-nz8
Sion9			zī-un	Z[-n
Sodom			säd-um	S/d-m
Solomon			säl-ō-mun	S/lom-n
Tabeal			tā-bē-ul	Tebi-l

[Page 63]

Pronunciation Guide Key:
a	about		ī	idle, fine, deny
ă	ask, pat, map		ō	over, bone, know
ā	able, bake, way		ou	about
ä	alms, father, call		u	jump
ĕ	ebb, met, second		ū	rule, boot, two
ē	eat, mete, me		u̇	book, look, put
er	permit		ȯ	open O – little used today
ĭ	it, him, mirror		u̇ and ȯ are not in the current PG

Appendix Notes

1. Ablom in the 1852 Book of Mormon. DA spelling is an apparent error.
2. Camenihah in the 1852 Book of Mormon. This spelling was replicated in the DA Book of Mormon.
3. Two variant spellings in the DA Book of Mormon.
4. Two variant spellings in the DA Book of Mormon.
5. Joneam in the 1852 Book of Mormon. Skousen (The Earliest Text) indicates that Joneum, rather than Jeneum, is the earliest spelling, agreeing with the DA pronunciation, but differing from the 1852 spelling.
6. Two variant spellings in the DA BoM.
7. Shimnilon in the 1852 Book of Mormon. This spelling was replicated in the DA Book of Mormon.
8. A variant spelling of shiblons in the 1830 and 1852 Book of Mormon “Now an antion of gold is equal to three shublons.” Alma 11:18 (Alma 8:8 in 1952 and DA Book of Mormon). This spelling was replicated in the DA Book of Mormon.
9. Sion is an error that first appeared in the 1852 Book of Mormon. It is Zion in all prior editions. This error was not corrected until the 1920 edition. I have included this word in the list since the DA Book of Mormon was set from the 1852 edition.