Today, a first. Hearing a language which I had never heard before and I would guess few people will ever hear.
An elderly gentleman was enquiring after an out of print book he was trying to get hold of. He let slip that his name day was 24th June. By which, knowing that Juhannes, when the Finns celebrate Midsummer is that very day, I deduced that he was called John. And telling him this, and mentioning the way that this is celebrated with fires (kokkot) in the aforementioned country he informed me that in his ancestral city, the feast was celebrated with ten days of bonfires. And he challenged me to guess where this country was.
His first clue was that a number of his countrymen where massacred in Lewisham in the fifteenth century. Then as I took a stab at Ireland, he told me that no, Irish was in another subgroup of the Celtic languages. I then tried Welsh (closer) and Breton (closer) still until I said, you're not Cornish are you?
He then spoke to me in the most beautiful, ancient language which now has, he believes 300 speakers. Cornish or Kernowak almost died out, partly he thinks as a result of the Bible never being translated into the language - his fellow countrymen held out against the protestant venacular service, supporting the keeping of the high Latin mass.
Links about Cornish:
Cornish Language
Cornwall County Council
Cornish - Wikipedia
Agan Tavas - Support group for Cornish Language users
His city was Penzance by the way which apparently, like "John" means "holy head".
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