Cornish language revival

[1] The last reported person to have full knowledge of a traditional form of Cornish, John Davey, died in 1891.

In 2009, UNESCO changed its classification of Cornish from "extinct" to "critically endangered", seen as a milestone for the revival of the language.

As well as presenting a standardised spelling system, Nance also extended the attested vocabulary with forms based largely on Breton and Welsh, and published a dictionary of Unified Cornish in 1938.

Also, Nance's phonology lacked some distinctions which later research showed must have existed in traditional Cornish.

George argued that this much closer relationship between sounds and writing would make Cornish much easier to teach and learn.

UCR built on Unified Cornish, making the spellings regular while keeping as close as possible to the orthographic practices of the medieval scribes.

In common with Kernewek Kemmyn, UCR made use of Tudor and Late Cornish prose materials unavailable to Nance.

A comprehensive English-Cornish dictionary of Unified Cornish Revised was published in 2000 and sold enough copies to merit a second edition.

In response to this, the Partnership initiated a process to agree on a standard form for use in education and public life.

On 9 May 2008, the Cornish Language Partnership met with the specification for the Standard Written Form as the main item on the agenda.

From the earliest days under Grand Bards Henry Jenner and Morton Nance, Unified Cornish had been used for the Gorseth ceremony.

[15] The Gorsedh Kernow have an annual Holyer an Gof Publishers Awards with a class dedicated to publications in the Cornish language.