The various dialects of C-1 are written exactly like their parent languages. Standard Roman alphabet characters (plus the letters j, u, and w) are used, along with ordinary punctuation symbols. Diacritical marks do not affect pronounciation, except in the case of the umlaut, pronounced as a combination of the vowel bearing the symbol plus the letter e, and the hacek, pronounced as ch or cd. The cedilla is interpreted as the letter c.

To facilitate recitation, texts may be transliterated into music notation. The clefs chosen should conform to the instruments or voice types intended for performance. It is usually not necessary to include key or time signatures, or even to differentiate between note values if only a simple recitation by a soloist or small ensemble is required. But for more complex poetic settings, carefully notated musical scores will be required.

Ordinarily, whole notes should be used to show all interval/letter equivalencies, keeping within the staff as much as possible and avoiding unnecessary ledger lines. Careful selection of the initial pitch is useful in this connection, as well as avoidance of compound intervals (which may, in any case, be introduced by the individual performer when deemed appropriate).

Bar lines help to minimize the use of accidentals and are placed after the final pitch of each word. However, the bar line may be replaced by a simple tick mark or Mensurstich.

All enharmonic spellings of any interval are permissible, but a rule of thumb is to minimize the number of accidentals wherever feasible, and to select accidentals that are easy to read in a conventional musical sense. The final pitch of the entire text need appear only once (although it is left to the speaker's discretion whether any repetition is appropriate). It should be followed by a double bar. A complete sample transliteration is given in Appendix 1.

It is usually helpful to place the original text immediately below (or above) corresponding parts of the transliteration, much like the lyrics of a song are placed under the notes to which they are to be sung (although there is obviously no need to align syllables of the original text with specific notes).

In ensemble recitations, the text should be distributed on multiple staves for instruments and voices, as required. Separate, specifically notated parts will probably have to be prepared, except in the case of very small groups in which individuals can read their parts from personal copies of a master score. In many instances, it will be desirable to notate all parts in a conventional manner to ensure a coherent, musically successful performance. This is the province of the composer, as it far exceeds the scope of mere transliteration and preparation of parts. But those who consider themselves primarily performers should not be discouraged from using C-1 for solo or small ensemble recitations, as it affords an excellent opportunity to exercise their own creative and interpretive talents.

Recital audiences should be given copies of the original (untransliterated) text so that they will be able to understand the denotative meaning of each word spoken in C-1.