"Kulurdu marni ngathaitya."

That's Stephen Gadlabarti Goldsmith's favourite saying in Kaurna language, and it translates in English to "[that] sounds good to me".

Mr Goldsmith grew up believing he was Narungga, due to his mother's family history of being held at the Point Pearce Mission and Aboriginal Station on South Australia's Yorke Peninsula.

"My mother was probably the first generation to move off the mission and to come back and live in the Adelaide area," he said.

But when Mr Goldsmith was told he was Kaurna, he began a search to learn more about his cultural heritage and the language of his people.

Kaurna place names Tartanyagga – Male red kangaroo rock (Adelaide south of the Torrens)

– Male red kangaroo rock (Adelaide south of the Torrens) Karrawirra Pari – Redgum forest river (River Torrens)

– Redgum forest river (River Torrens) Ngangkiparingga – Woman river place (Onkaparinga River)

– Woman river place (Onkaparinga River) Pathawilya – Swamp gum foliage (Glenelg)

– Swamp gum foliage (Glenelg) Kauwantila – In the north (Cowandilla)

– In the north (Cowandilla) Kangkarrila – Shepherding place (Kangarilla)

– Shepherding place (Kangarilla) Nurlungga – Bend place (Horseshoe Bend on Onkaparinga River)

– Bend place (Horseshoe Bend on Onkaparinga River) Yartapuulti – Land of sleep/death (Port Adelaide)

"It was like being told you were an adopted child," he said.

The Kaurna people lived in the Adelaide Hills and plains area prior to European colonisation.

Early work was done to record the Kaurna language by several colonists, but the extensive documentation by German missionaries Clamor Schumann and Christian Teichelmann is said to have saved it from extinction.

The missionaries ran a Kaurna language school from 1840 till 1846.

They recorded about 2,000 words and 200 sentences before their work was stopped by governor George Grey, who forbade the use of the language in 1846.

And it wasn't until the 1980s, when the German missionaries' notes were discovered, that linguists went about reviving Kaurna.

Unearthing a lost language

Mr Goldsmith was in his mid-30s when the language of his people was reborn.

The resurgence of the Kaurna language has given Stephen Gadlabarti Goldsmith his identity back. ( ABC Radio Adelaide: Brett Williamson )

Today, he said he was still learning new words and phrases in Kaurna.

"In my heart it gives me back my identity," he said.

"It gives me power and dignity ... it's the poetry in my soul."

He swelled with pride as he described how his family and grandchildren now also spoke the Kaurna language.

"My kids will have something that I never had — the pride of knowing that they are Kaurna and of this country.

"I feel so proud that they have held on to our identity and can build on that."

The Kaurna language of today, though, is not a facsimile of the original spoken word.

With almost a century passing since it was openly spoken, word pronunciations have had to be derived from common words in the neighbouring Adnyamathanha, Narungga and Ngarrindjeri languages.

"It makes me sad that we lost it in the past," Mr Goldsmith said.

"But the fragments we are picking up, I am very, very happy about."