Standard Written Form

The Standard Written Form or SWF (Cornish: Furv Skrifys Savonek) of the Cornish language is an orthography standard that is designed to "provide public bodies and the educational system with a universally acceptable, inclusive, and neutral orthography". The acronym SWF is pronounced by some as /ˈswʌf/ and at the 2009 MAGA meeting in Lostwithiel, Jenefer Lowe mentioned a new verb swufhe 'to render into the SWF' had attained some currency.^{[citation needed]}

The new form was agreed in May 2008 after two years of negotiations between proponents of different varieties of Cornish. The SWF was influenced by Unified Cornish, Kernewek Kemmyn, Unified Cornish Revised, Revived Late Cornish, Kernewek Dasunys, and Kernowek Standard. The agreement means that Cornish will become officially accepted and funded, with support from the UK government and the European Union. In a need for stability, the Standard Written Form will not be altered until 2013.

The negotiating teams comprised Andrew Climo, Rod Lyon, Bernard Deacon, Mina Dresser, Pol Hodge, Loveday Jenkin, George Ansell and Polinn Prees. The negotiations were chaired by Trond Trosterud, and supported by Albert Bock, Ben Bruch and Jenefer Lowe.^{[citation needed]}

In June 2009, the Gorseth Kernow voted overwhelmingly to adopt the Standard Written Form.

Outstanding issues

A number of orthographic issues have been identified with the SWF^{[citation needed]}. The SWF will be reviewed in 2013.

• Inconsistent distribution of ⟨i⟩ and ⟨y⟩
• Quality and quantity of ⟨u⟩ is ambiguous
• ⟨aw⟩ and ⟨ay⟩ prone to mispronunciation
• The use of ⟨ev⟩ and ⟨edh⟩ in unstressed final position promotes mispronunciation
• ⟨mm⟩ and ⟨nn⟩ in some words leads to inappropriate pre-occlusion (i.e., mispronunciation).

Kernowek Standard is a proposed set of amendments to the SWF, to improve its accuracy and remove current ambiguity identified in the issues above.

External links

• Standard Written Form, Cornish Language Partnership
• Emendations to the Specification, November 2008PDF, Cornish Language Partnership