How do we recover a BIP32 mnemonic as a BIP39 mnemonic?

I created a wallet years ago using Electrum desktop software and recorded the 12-word mnemonic seed.

I've long since switched over from Electrum to Sparrow. When I choose on Sparrow to import that wallet, it rejects its 12 words. It insists the 12th checksum word is wrong. I concluded I must have recorded the 12 words incorrectly even though I vaguely recall being very careful to record it precisely.

If I didn't still have that same, old laptop running Electrum, I may have determined my mnemonic seed is junk and abandoned hope of ever recovering its funds. But luckly I do still have it, and found the Electrum wallet's underlying file which I ported over to Sparrow for wallet-import "by Electrum file" instead of by mnemonic seed. What I observed next was both confusing and enlightening for me, and I'm writing this post to save others from having the same panic attack of their own.

Wheras Sparrow refused to accept the same 12 words earlier as a legitimate mnemonic, now with the wallet successfully recreated via wallet data file, the 12 words it shows me representing the wallet were the same words! In the same order! With the same 12th checksum word it rejected earlier! How is that possible?!?

I opened the Electrum wallet file in a text editor and browsed its contents. I noticed it said it was a BIP32 wallet. Okay, I thought. I don't have all the BIP standards memorized but I guess BIP32 is the standard that made mnemonic phrases possible instead of memorizing a long, alpha-numeric sequence of private-key characters. But then, looking back at Sparrow's sub menu to import a mnemonic seed, it called it a BIP39 choice. I thought there was just one standard becuase many standards means we don't have a standard. Right? No! I see by a quick web search we have BIP32, BIP39, and BIP44. <smh>

Let's suppose that old laptop is long gone, so I don't have the BIP32 wallet data file. Only its 12 word mnemonic to recover from.

• Using Sparrow, how would I re-establish access to that wallet and its UTXOs?
• If Sparrow simply doesn't support BIP32 mnemonic recovery, how would I recover that wallet without going back to Electrum?
• I'm tech-savvy but how would a orange-pilled normie/layman know how to do it?
• Seed Stamp products and such only accommodate recording the mnemonic words. Not also their specific BIP standard. But based on this wallet recovery experience, in a new Bitcoin ecosystem of software & tools several years later, it seems pertinent to tell the User "which" mnemonic standard their secret words are recoverable by.
• Bitcoin is supposed to be backwards compatible, and that's a big deal. Someone recently recovered 80,000 bitcoin from a 2010 wallet just recently in 2025. Sparrow's reputation is that it's thee best desktop software for Bitcoin wallets. So why would it not be backwards compatible for an older BIP standard to recover a mnemonic seed?
• How many people out there do you suppose have experienced this same thing I'm telling you about here and suffered deeply in isolation because they don't know what Bitcoiner to turn to? They don't even know about this subreddit? How many more will also experience future crisis because they too thought there was "just one standard" and that everyone in the ecosystem is on that standard?

Most people don't read long posts in Reddit (or other social media platforms). I don't think I've ever written a post this long, myself. Thank you for being the exception. I hope your sustained interest to read to the end means you have the knowledge to teach me (and the others that later find this post + comments years or decades later by web search).