Glossolalia or “speaking in tongues” is known primarily from charismatic Christian churches. In that setting it has been studied extensively with some remarkable findings. In Tower of Linguistic Babel, I examined one of those studies and noted some curious features of “tongues” or glossas:
They are always derivative of the speakers’ native language. In other words, [...]
Tags:charismatic Christianity·dissociative speech acts·ermeneglossia·glossolalia·linguistics·Pentecostals·Phonation Frustes·shamanic speech·speaking in tongues·supernatural languages·Tower of Babel·xenoglossia
From time to time I find it salutary to make confessions, even if the acknowledgment brands me as a philistine. One such confession is that I love Ray Bradbury. I was reminded of this while reading an interview he gave to The Paris Review.
After dismissing James Joyce as a writer who lacked ideas and could [...]
Tags:A Sound of Thunder·cosmology·ideas·James Joyce·metaphor·Ray Bradbury·speaking in tongues·stories·storytelling·world religions
In a recent post, I noted that the faithful yearn for empirical affirmations of their ineffable beliefs. For Evangelicals and Pentecostals (“charismatics”) one of these supposed affirmations can be found in church nearly every Sunday: someone will begin “speaking in tongues” and then someone else will proffer an “interpretation” of the message from God-Jesus or [...]
“Speaking in Tongues” or glossolalia is most often associated with Pentecostal worship. It is an interesting phenomenon that has attracted some scholarly interest. A recent post over at Brain Blogger discusses some of these studies:
Research performed in the 1980s at Denison University by the late anthropologist Felicitas Goodman led to a theory that glossolalia was [...]
