xenoglossy - Wordsmith.org

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an odd thing happened to me. in another country, very anxious to communicate, i was suddenly able speak a language that i can't normally wrangle. the only word i could find to describe this was "xenoglossy," which is related to speaking in tongues, which i don't think i was doing. anyone know of another word or, better yet, have a similar experience?

Welcome, jlog. I like your coinage, I've never heard of this phenomenon (let alone know a word for it), and do you speak any foreign languages?

yes, i speak french fluently. but this has happened to me in spanish, in italian, and last year, when i was doing an interview, in hebrew and ladino. i think it has to do with a head-heart connection when all barriers to being in the flow are removed. something like that.

"Glossologia, or �speaking in tongues,� , is the ability to speak a foreign language without having to be taught it or knowing it beforehand."

Whatever was happening in the tales related in the Bible, glossologia, or glossolalia, as it is also known, as it is presently practiced in pentecostal churches, does not involve any language, known or unknown. Use of the word in any context wherein some human language is actually being used could lead to misunderstanding.

Quote:

"Glossologia, or �speaking in tongues,� , is the ability to speak a foreign language without having to be taught it or knowing it beforehand."

What's your source, Dan?

I've never heard of glossologia but have heard of glossolalia 'speaking in tongues'. Xenoglossy is a newish linguistics term that refers to speaking in a language one hasn't studied or acquired from birth, divorced from the religious context of glossolalia.

Quote:

I've never heard of glossologia but have heard of glossolalia 'speaking in tongues'. Xenoglossy is a newish linguistics term that refers to speaking in a language one hasn't studied or acquired from birth, divorced from the religious context of glossolalia.

So once again the sly erudition of the capitose mister zmjezhd, has explained this confusing World to me. Two nights ago in responding to an Awad Thread in Loanwords from German I lapsed into a bout of speaking and writing in German, although the only language I speak and write is Excellent English.

Now, thanks to zejezhd, I understand that my "xeneglossy" is a respectable new term now used by reputable "linguists", and not a "hat trick" used by shamans and weird parapsychologists.

You can learn a lot from old zejezhd if you know how to read him.

(See: Loan Words from German)

Glossologia does get some hits, including one that makes it look like it might could be Greek for "linguistics". There are also some that seem to suggest that it is what we call glossolalia. It might be that, in the religious context, glossologia is the real thing and glossolalia is the babbling of the Pentecostals.

Uh, Faldage, when posting in public it's best not to babble like the Pentecostals. The subject is "xenoglossy" not "glossologia".

But maybe you are just showing off, if so show off and translate my German in Loan Words From German.
I am curious as to what I said.

Do you really not speak German at all? Not even a tiny bit? You even got the genders right...

I think the question to be asked is where can we learn this talent??

Snakes.

Uh, Milo, when posting in public it's best to read the whole thread that you are posting in. Xenoglossy, glossolalia, and glossologia have all been discussed.

As to the German, maybe I'll go find the page you cut-and-pasted from. Probably it has an English language version.

Abba dabbah
Rucy llupft die Gans
(sound of someone swallowing his own, or somebody else's, tongue) -- maylight
eine Meile teachum offal Harnschirm
wuggah wuggah juan cintron
aru a-a bama D�mmerung
Plate one de(stroy)ed Reading feeb tongue
snip, snip(e), Schnapps

Farblose gr�ne Ideen schlafen w�tend.

Maybe it's time for Noam Chomsky to recant his recantation ...

What a idjit!

Am I, like Noam Chomsky, doomed to a life of endless recantation? Now I, due to human frailty and forgetfullness, must apologise to the likes of zmjezhd, Faldage, and Annastrophic.

No! I did not suddenly start writing in German. The truth struck me last night in the middle of a dream, and here is the reconstruction...

Last Tuesday night Sebastian Voigt, a German ichnological paleontologist examining vertebrate trace fossils in Alabama, was spending the night at my house and we were drinking bourbon and coca-cola. I went to bed early.
Then, last night, I remembered that I told him that he was wecome to use my computer.

And now I would like to apologise to the likes of smjezhd, Faldage, and Annastrophic for my indeliberate deception.