Deseret Small Letter Eng

𐑍 is the Deseret letter for the English “ng” sound, as at the end of “sing.” By itself, it is read by its letter name, “eng.”

Text symbol

What 𐑍 means

It marks the consonant at the end of “sing.”

Why was the Deseret alphabet created?

To make English easier to spell and teach.

In 1850, Latter-day Saint leader Brigham Young asked the University of Deseret board to reform English. The alphabet was introduced publicly in 1854, with George D. Watt leading its design. Its sound-based approach drew on Isaac Pitman’s spelling reform; some letter shapes were likely influenced by Greek, Hebrew, and Phoenician.

Young wanted children and immigrant converts to learn English more easily and hoped a shared spelling system would unite his religious community. It appeared in primers and a Book of Mormon, but remained little used and faded after his death in 1877.

Part of the collection

𐐀

Deseret & Shavian Alphabets

Who writes 𐑍

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What it means when someone sends it to you

2 readings

The consonant at the end of “sing.”

Don't confuse it with

Cyrillic Small Letter I

Cyrillic small letter i, with a stroke shape similar to Deseret eng. A Cyrillic letter typed or pasted by mistake can pass for it; they are different letters.

ᴎ

Latin Letter Small Capital Reversed N

Latin small capital reversed N, a phonetic-symbol letter with a similar stroke shape to Deseret eng. A different letter that can look alike in some fonts.

Questions people ask

Why does 𐑍 show as a box on some devices?

Not every system ships a font for the Deseret block. Where none is installed, the character shows as an empty box; adding a font such as Noto fixes it. The character itself is still correct and copies correctly.