Glosalalia

Glossolalia or speaking in tongues is a phenomenon in which people speak, or appear to speak, in languages unknown to them. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of speech-like syllables that lack any readily comprehended meaning, in some cases as part of religious practice in which it is believed to be a divine language unknown to the speaker. Glossolalia is practiced in Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity as well as in other religions. The term derives from glōssais lalein, a Greek phrase used in the New Testament meaning "to speak in or with tongues [i.e., other languages]" (Acts 2:4, 1 Corinthians 14:18).

Sometimes a distinction is made between "glossolalia" and "xenolalia" or "xenoglossy", which specifically designates when the language being spoken is a natural language previously unknown to the speaker. However, this distinction is not universally made, and the New Testament uses the phrase glōssais lalein in at least one passage to refer to speaking in languages known to others but not to the speakers.

"Glossolalia" is from the Greek word γλωσσολαλία, itself a compound of the words γλῶσσα (glossa), meaning "tongue" or "language" and λαλέω (laleō), "to speak, talk, chat, prattle, or to make a sound". The Greek expression (in various forms) appears in the New Testament in the books of Acts and First Corinthians. In Acts 2, the followers of Christ receive the Holy Spirit and speak in the languages of at least fifteen countries or ethnic groups.

The exact phrase "speaking in tongues" has been used at least since the translation of the New Testament into Middle English in the Wycliffe Bible in the 14th century.Frederic Farrar first used the word "glossolalia" in 1879.

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