Variants Put simply, the written sources for Cornishspan several centuries and reflect different periods in the life ofthe language. In reviving Cornish, spelling systems have beendevised which reflect different ideas on how we should use thisknowledge to take Cornish forward into the future. The majority of Cornish literature appeared in the 1400s to1700s and took the form of religious plays. Prose writings inCornish date from 1550 to the end of the 1700s. The differentdialects of Cornish put varying weights on this corpus of historicCornish. A very simple guide to each one follows: Standard Written Form
This standardisedspelling of Cornish was established in 2008 to bring together usersof all forms of Cornish and to be used primarily in education andpublic life. For further information about the StandardWritten Form (SWF) follow this link to the StandardWritten Form page. Unified Cornish
This was introduced in the 1920s and was based on the grammar andspelling of the literature of the medieval period. Common Cornish
Common Cornish was developed from Unified Cornish during the 1980s,following a long period of discussion and research into traditionaltexts. The greatest changes were made to the orthography or writtenform. Common Cornish is phonemic – what most people would callphonetic – in that each sound in the spoken language is representeduniquely by a letter or group of letters. Unified Cornish Revised
A revision of Unified Cornish, UCR has amended the spelling toavoid potential confusions and to reflect further research. UCRtakes as its source the Cornish of the Tudor texts rather than themedieval texts. Modern Cornish
Modern Cornish aims to pick up the project of those who tried tosave spoken Cornish in its latest phase. It is based on the periodwhen prose writings appeared and on the pronunciation of the early1700s. There are therefore some differences in both pronunciationand spelling between Modern Cornish and the three otherdialects. All forms are mutually intelligible in the same way as dialectswithin English. | 
