Logo Copyright © 2007 NCCG - All Rights Reserved
Return to Main Page

RESOURCES

Disclaimer

Introduction

Symphony of Truth

In a Nutshell

Topical Guide

5-144000

5 Commissions

10 Commandments

333 NCCG Number

144,000, The

A

Action Stations

Agency, Free

Alcohol

Angels

Anointing

Apostles

Apostolic Interviews

Apostolic Epistles

Archive, Complete

Articles & Sermons

Atheism

Atonement

B

Banners

Baptism, Water

Baptism, Fire

Becoming a Christian

Bible Codes

Bible Courses

Bible & Creed

C

Calendar of Festivals

Celibacy

Charismata & Tongues

Chavurat Bekorot

Christian Paganism

Chrism, Confirmation

Christmas

Church, Fellowship

Contact us

Constitution

Copyright

Covenants & Vows

Critics

Culture

Cults

D

Deliverance

Demons

Desperation

Diaries

Discipleship

Dreams

E

Ephraimite Page, The

Essene Christianity

Existentialism

F

Faith

Family, The

Feminism

FAQ

Festivals of Yahweh

Festivals Calendar

Freedom

G

Gay Christians

Gnosticism

Godhead, The

H

Heaven

Heresy

Healing

Health

Hebrew Roots

Hell

Hinduism

History

Holiness

Holy Echad Marriage

Holy Order, The

Home Education

Homosexuality

Human Nature

Humour

Hymnody

I

Intro to NCCG.ORG

Islam

J

Jewish Page, The

Judaism, Messianic

Judaism, Talmudic

K

KJV-Only Cult

L

Links

Love

M

Marriage & Romance

Membership

Miracles

Messianic Judaism

Mormonism

Music

Mysticism

N

NCCG Life

NCCG Origins

NCCG Organisation

NCCG, Spirit of

NCCG Theology

NDE's

Nefilim

New Age & Occult

NCMHL

NCMM

New Covenant Torah

Norwegian Website

O

Occult Book, The

Occult Page, The

Olive Branch

Orphanages

P

Paganism, Christian

Pentecost

Poetry

Politics

Prayer

Pre-existence

Priesthood

Prophecy

Q

Questions

R

Rapture

Reincarnation

Resurrection

Revelation

RDP Page

S

Sabbath

Salvation

Satanic Ritual Abuse

Satanism

Science

Sermons & Articles

Sermons Misc

Sermonettes

Sex

Smoking

Sonship

Stewardship

Suffering

Swedish Website

T

Talmudic Judaism

Testimonies

Tithing

Tongues & Charismata

Torah

Trinity

True Church, The

TV

U

UFO's

United Order, The

V

Visions

W

Wicca & the Occult

Women

World News

Y

Yah'shua (Jesus)

Yahweh

Z

Zion


    33
    GLOSSOLALIA

    The Gift of Gibberish
    by D. James Janes

    Foreword

    The following article is not by a member of the Church and reflects his own opinions regarding the phenomenon known as "tongue-speaking" which for many is seen as "proof" for being a Christian. New Covenant Christians have consistenly rejected all forms of meaningless, dissociated speech as being unbiblical, and have only recognised two forms of valid tongue-speaking: (a) foreign languages (usually living tongues), and (b) Adamic, the "language of angels" which we maintain to be a true language with proper grammar and vocabulary. Though Mr. James is not a believer we basically endorse his scientific analysis of pentecostal and neo-pentecostal "glossolalia". -- Ed.


    GLOSSOLALIA: THE GIFT OF GIBBERISH

    Strolling through the television one day, I encountered one of the many televangelists available for video perusal. This guy was speaking a little funny. At first, I thought that he was perhaps speaking Spanish. But having three courses under my belt forced me to discount this possibility when I was unable to recognize anything as Spanish. In fact, I could not detect any familiar sound at all, from any language.

    Well, I must admit that at one point it sounded as if this preacher -- Robert Tilton -- had spoken a phrase familiar to those of us with children, "Kowwabunga, dude!" -- the famous victory cry of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Suddenly, the preacher stopped speaking whatever language he had been speaking and began to talk in completely understandable English. Ah, now I understood. He had been "speaking in tongues," or, to use the psycholinguistic, he had been engaged in an act of glossolalia.

    Glossolalia, which usually occurs within a religious context, consists of unintelligible yet seemingly structured speech. In most instances, the speaker is experiencing an altered state of consciousness very much like self-hypnosis. Through the centuries, the popularity of glossolalia has fluctuated, but it has never disappeared.

    The most recent resurgence of tongue-speaking took place in the 1960s when it was spewed out of the mouths of thousands of Pentecostals at numerous tent revivals held throughout that decade. Interested members of other religious groups adopted the practice and incorporated it into their own system of worship. And, as I found out, glossolalists are even on TV. While the existence of speaking in tongues may not be a revelation to some people (there are more than four million speaks of glossolalia in the U.S. alone), many are unaware that the phenomenon is a global one, not attached exclusively to Christianity. All cases, however, share a disputation of genuineness.

    What concerns us here, depiste the fascinating psychological and social dimensions of glossolalia, is the linguistic feasibility of the event. Is it a language? More specifically, since the ascertainment of an existing language would be relatively straightforward, if it is a language, is it one that the speaker knows or has been exposed to? Is it language-like? Does it follow any reasonable phonological, morphological, or syntactic pattern? Does it differ significantly (linguistically) from the speaker's native language? Are there any aberrant, alien phonemes? In short, is glossolalia an example of a strange linguistic reality, or is it a display of self-induced vocal hysteria, an ejaculation of gibberish?

    Speaking a language foreign to one's native tongue without having ever learned it or ever having heard it is technically called xenoglossia, and not quite the same thing as [biblical] glossolalia. The two types of verbal abnormalities are often linked together because [interpreters of] the Bible are unclear whether the apostles were speaking in an unfamiliar foreign language or all uttering in one unknown tongue. Either way, there has been only one credible account of anyone speaking a foreign language with no previous exposure to it. This one exception was a Jewish woman who, under hypnosis, slipped into another personality able to speak in Swedish. The typical claim usually turns out to be a hoax. [Ed. There are many well documented accounts of Christian ministers speaking fluently in Chinese, Russian and other languages, which New Covenant Christians would regard as bone fide biblical tongue-speaking].

    One of the characteristics of glossolalia is that it can resemble known languages, since there are only so many speech sounds physiologically possible. Not surprisingly, glossolalists may string together certain consonant-vowel combinations that are phonemically similar to a foreign language. Equally likely would be the possibility of a glossolalia-produced meaningful unit, a short word fully recognizable from a foreign language. Of many possibilities might be the hearing of the word para or por, both variations of the article for, amidst a glossolalia string. Despite the preponderance of unfamiliar "words" (and phonemes), the listener might attribute to the speaker the ability to speak Spanish. Akin to this kind of "successful" linguistic search are the notorious discoveries of hidden messages in record albums played backwards. [Ed. These are signs of demonic possession].

    The unlikelihood of xenoglossia does not rule out the claim that glossolalists are speaking some type of language. After all, one would not expect the tongues of angels to be as culturally or geographically specific as German or Spanish. No, this language should be universal in nature, potentially understandable by everyone, with a vocabulary completely different from all other languages. Like every other rule-based language, even the angels would need a regulated system of lingual communications in order to maintain any semblance of order, lest all hell break loose. Within the speech of millions of glossolalists should be found a grammatical set with shared sounds, shared words, and a shared structure.

    Syntactical analyses of glossolalia have yielded no linguistic patterns of tongue-speakers. Unfortunately, the architecture of a glossolalia blurb is rather inscrutable and nearly impossible to break down into sentences or phrases. And yet, most listeners and linguists agree that speakers of tongues incorporate grammatical elements into their speech that would seem to be indicators of a syntactical arrangement. There are the necessary inflections and pauses and rhythmic cadences that appear to organize the verbiage into macrosegments (sentences), microsegments (words), phonemes. One theory explains the metered vocalization as symptomatic of a rhythmical discharge of subcortical strucutres operating during a trance state. If speech is biologically interrupted, it could appear to be a sentence pause. It would certainly be hard to catch "words" being cut off or notice illogical breaks in expression when neither can be identified.

    Since sentences and phrases are generally composed of smaller units called words, semantical research on microsegments might isolate a glossolalia glossary (minus the definitions). If, on the other hand, a study of glossolalia should support the hypothesis that there is no lexicon among its practitioners, a larger assumption could be made that sentences are inconceivable without words. The evidence is mixed. One case study that inventoried identifiable (repeated) microsegments would commit no more than to say that "glossolalia is at least remotely language-like." Other findings, based on both longitudinal and comparative studies, have elicited less tepid conclusions from researchers who believe that "a vocabulary does seem to be operative" within and among glossolalists. They provide one example of a "word" shared in slightly altered form from various tongues-speakers across America. The word is "shun-da" and eight different variations are offered. Unfortunately, we are never told what this word means, if indeed it means anything at all. Neologisms (newly coined words) are the trademark of glossolalia. Meanings are another story.

    The strongest correlation between glossolalia and language comes from an analysis of phonemes. As mentioned previously, it is statistically probable that glossolalists will reiterate familiar consonant, vowel, or diphthong sounds simly because the vocal tract can only produce a finite base of phonemes. If, however, the tongues of angels is a language unique and apart from all the other known languages in the world, then one would expect glossolalists to reproduce significantly fewer phonemes from his or her native language. This is exactly what Michael T. Motley found in his case study of a 61-year-old male Pentecostal. On the basis of his phonetic analysis, he concluded that glossolalia is language-like. Ultimately, however, he could not concede that glossolalia is a language.

    An alternative hypothesis to phoneme expectancy might be that glossolalia is a psycholingual catharsis. Entering into an altered state of uncontrolled, energetic, spontaneous verbal creativity, it seems reasonable that a great variety of sounds could ensue. Temporarily detached from a conscious connection to his or her natural language, the vocal tract of the glossolalist is allowed to contort into otherwise unfamiliar positions. Without basing phonemic expectations within the context of an unknown language, deviant phonemes would be more likely to occur. This does not mean that glossolalia would be any less language-like. It would mean, however, that speaking in tongues is closer to a schizophrenic's word-salad than a divine language. This is not supported by research, which has shown both schizophrenese and faked glossolalia to be much less language-like than (and I hesitate to say this) the real thing.

    So, where does that leave us? William Samarin, a long-time researcher into the speaking of tongues, summarizes:

    When the full apparatus of linguistic science comes to bear on glossolalia, this turns out to be only a facade of language -- although at times a very good one indeed. For when we comprehend what language is, we must conclude that no glossa, no matter how well constructed, is a specimen of human language, because it is neither internally organized nor systematically related to the world man perceives.

    Samarin's conjecture is in line with that of most linguists and psychologists, who are impressed with the phenomenon, but not nearly convinced that it represents any type of language. It is an event with meaning and power to those who exhibit the behavior, and to those who claim to be able to understand it. But in the words of Skipp Porteous, a former tongues-speaking Pentecostal minister, "as far as its being any sort of language, that is pure nonsense -- it is gibberish." A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle could not have put it any better.

    Adapted, with thanks, from Walk Away Glossolalia

    Comments by the editor have been placed in [square parentheses].

    This page was created on 22 November 1977
    Last updated on 23 February 1998

    Comments Copyright © 1987-2007 NCCG - All Rights Reserved