(upbeat music) - Have you ever come across a word or a name and thought, "Now how do I say that?"

Guilty.

The Designing Deseret Symposium will introduce you to a historic but helpful way to crack the language code.

Lyuba Basin is in our studio now to share how you can dive hands-on into the origins and influence of the Deseret alphabet, welcome.

- Thank you for having me.

- So tell me about this event.

- So the event is all to highlight the Deseret alphabet, which many people have never heard of before.

It's a phonetic alphabet that's unique to the Utah territory that was developed sometime in the late 1850s, mid-19th century by the leaders of the LDS Church and also the Board of Regents of the original University of Deseret.

So it's a way in which each sound has its own letter, making English a lot easier to learn how to read and write.

- How fascinating.

So this will be something that people will be able to learn at this event?

- Yeah, hopefully, that will be a good takeaway goal.

We'll have a slate of speakers in the morning talking about the history of the alphabet, and also its current cultural and artistic uses.

We'll also have some experiential hands-on activities in the afternoon in which we'll be reading and writing in Deseret, printing in Deseret, and also looking at some historic materials from the rare books collection.

- Oh, wow, well, it sounds like a dream for a language nerd like me, but why should someone who may not be so much into language maybe give this a try and check this out?

What do you hope that they'll get from this?

- That's a great question.

I think linguists will obviously be attracted to something like this, but I think also if you're interested in history, in Utah history, in church history, or even thinking about the history of the book broadly and how typography, paper, printing practices all go hand in hand in making the book.

I think, really, this is for anybody who's just curious, and wanting to know more.

- Yeah, and it goes throughout the day for a good amount of time.

And you guys will provide refreshments for people, right?

- Yes, so, it's nine to five.

It's basically a full day shift, and we'll have breakfast and lunch available, as well as a lot of really cool stuff for people to take home.

- Love to hear that.

Well, if you would like to check out this event, the information is now on your screen.

It's the Designing Deseret Symposium, June 1st from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the J. Willard Marriott Library.

You can go to that link, tinyurl.com/designingdeseret for more information.

I'm Liz Adeola, and thank you for watching "Contact."

(upbeat music) Philanthropy, Arts, culture.

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Hi, I'm Liz Adeola, the host of Contact, a show that connects you with local events and organizations that serve your community.

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