Did you know that back in time, people in the South Hams spoke a variety of Cornish (or Kernewek)?

Cornish itself is derived from a Celtic language called Southwestern Brittonic which died out in the 18th or possibly 19th century before being revived in the 20th century.

It was still spoken in the South Hams until the Battle of Hingston Down in 936 before retreating across the Tamar, then further and further westwards.

It was traditionally thought that the last native speaker of Cornish was Dolly Pentreathof Mousehole who died in 1777 but although she was probably the last monolingual speaker, the last native speaker may have been John Davey of Zennor who died in 1891.

The revival movement is thought to have started with the 1904 publication of A Handbook of the Cornish Language by Henry Jenner.

Robert Morton Nance published his Unified Cornish (Kernewek Unys) system and this led led to a dictionary being published in 1938.

A public body the Cornish Language Partnership was created in 2005 and a Standard Written Form was agreed in 2008.

UNESCO altered its classification of the language from ‘extinct’ to ‘critically endangered’ in 2010.

3,000 people are thought to know some words and there are thought to be around 300 confident speakers.

The language is recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and today there are a number of books, Cornish language music and even a pre-school nursery teaching the language.

There are 26 schools with over 4,000 pupils learning through the Go Cornish for Primary Schools Programme.

Cornish is closest to Breton spoken across the Channel in Brittany.

Why not try out a few words and phrases?

Dydh da- hello

Myttin da- good morning

Gorthuger da- good evening

Meur ras- thank you

Mar pleg- please

Yeghes da! cheers!