Typing in the Deseret Alphabet

Maybe it's because the only languages I ever speak or type (English and Spanish) use the Latin alphabet, but it seems awfully complicated to enter text in a non-latin way...especially on a latin keyboard.

I mean, UTF-8 seems pretty ubiquitous, but typing more characters outside of the ASCII range than an occasional emoji seems to bring a lot of overhead. Compound that with the fact that the Deseret Alphabet isn't a different language, it's just a phonetic version of English.

What I eventually ended up doing is to define an input style in emacs that will convert my own phonetic spelling into the proper glyphs.

So, for the example in my Deseret Alphabet on Plan9 post, I went into emacs, selected 'deseret' as my input type, and entered:

THHis iz mai furst utempt at riteeng in thh Dezeret Alfubet.

Side note: one of the criticisms of the DA is the lack of a schwa, or unpronounced vowel character. Using the 'u' sound in the word 'first' seems wrong, but it's the accepted practice, apparently. I would have been ok with just 'frst', but I also think a schwa would have worked there, if such a thing existed.

Here is my deseret.el:

(require 'quail)

(quail-define-package
 "deseret" "English" "𐐔𐐯𐑆𐐯𐑉𐐯𐐻" nil
 "Easy Deseret Alphabet transcription"
 nil t t t t nil nil nil nil nil t)

;; upper-case starts at 10400
;; lower-case starts at 10428

(quail-define-rules
 ("EE" ?𐐀) ("ee" ?𐐨)
 ("AY" ?𐐁) ("ay" ?𐐩)
 ("AH" ?𐐂) ("ah" ?𐐪)
 ("AW" ?𐐃) ("aw" ?𐐫)
 ("OH" ?𐐄) ("oh" ?𐐬)
 ("OO" ?𐐅) ("oo" ?𐐭)
 ("I" ?𐐆) ("i" ?𐐮)	; it
 ("E" ?𐐇) ("e" ?𐐯)	; get
 ("A" ?𐐈) ("a" ?𐐰)	; hat
 ("O" ?𐐉) ("o" ?𐐱)	; 'ot' as a victim of the cot–caught merger, I don't know what this is
 ("U" ?𐐊) ("u" ?𐐲)	; but
 ("UU" ?𐐋) ("uu" ?𐐳)	; book
 ("AI" ?𐐌) ("ai" ?𐐴)	; high
 ("OW" ?𐐍) ("ow" ?𐐵)
 ("W" ?𐐎) ("w" ?𐐶)
 ("Y" ?𐐏) ("y" ?𐐷)
 ("H" ?𐐐) ("h" ?𐐸)
 ("P" ?𐐑) ("p" ?𐐹)
 ("B" ?𐐒) ("b" ?𐐺)
 ("T" ?𐐓) ("t" ?𐐻)
 ("D" ?𐐔) ("d" ?𐐼)
 ("CH" ?𐐕) ("ch" ?𐐽)
 ("J" ?𐐖) ("j" ?𐐾)	; dʒ (judge)
 ("K" ?𐐗) ("k" ?𐐿)
 ("G" ?𐐘) ("g" ?𐑀)
 ("F" ?𐐙) ("f" ?𐑁)
 ("V" ?𐐚) ("v" ?𐑂)
 ("TH" ?𐐛) ("th" ?𐑃)	; thigh
 ("THH" ?𐐜) ("thh" ?𐑄)	; the
 ("S" ?𐐝) ("s" ?𐑅)
 ("Z" ?𐐞) ("z" ?𐑆)
 ("SH" ?𐐟) ("sh" ?𐑇)
 ("ZH" ?𐐠) ("zh" ?𐑈)
 ("R" ?𐐡) ("r" ?𐑉)
 ("L" ?𐐢) ("l" ?𐑊)
 ("M" ?𐐣) ("m" ?𐑋)
 ("N" ?𐐤) ("n" ?𐑌)
 ("NG" ?𐐥) ("ng" ?𐑍)
 ("OY" ?𐐦) ("oy" ?𐑎)
 ("EW" ?𐐧) ("ew" ?𐑏)
 )