Reformed Egyptian

In Mormonism, Reformed Egyptian is the language in which the text of the Book of Mormon was originally written. The Book of Mormon itself describes this language as consisting of the "learning of the Jews and the language of the Egyptians" (1 Nephi 1:2)—in other words, Hebrew words written like Egyptian hieroglyphs.

According to his own account, the founder of The Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Smith, produced the Book of Mormon by translating the Reformed Egyptian characters engraved upon Golden Plates[?]. He accomplished the translation by revelation and by peering into an ancient device called the Urim and Thummim[?]. Both the plates and the translation device were eventually returned to an angel named Moroni who gave them to him.

Mainstream linguists and Egyptologists contend that Reformed Egyptian has never existed. The small sample of writing that Joseph Smith claimed to have copied from the Golden Plates match no known written language, modern or ancient.