Xenoglossy

Xenoglossy(/ˌziːnəˈɡlɒsi,ˌzɛ-,-noʊ-/),^[1]also writtenxenoglossia(/ˌziːnəˈɡlɒsiə,ˌzɛ-,-noʊ-/)^[2]^[3]and sometimes also known asxenolalia,is the supposedlyparanormalphenomenon in which a person is allegedly able to speak, write or understand a foreign language that they could not have acquired by natural means. The term derives from theAncient Greekxenos(ξένος), "foreigner" andglōssa(γλῶσσα), "tongue" or "language".^[4]The termxenoglossywas first used by Frenchparapsychologist Charles Richetin 1905. Accounts of xenoglossy are found in theNew Testament,and contemporary claims have been made by parapsychologists andreincarnationresearchers such asIan Stevenson.Doubts have been expressed that xenoglossy is an actual phenomenon, and there is no scientifically admissible evidence supporting any of the alleged instances of xenoglossy.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8]

Two types of xenoglossy are distinguished. Recitative xenoglossy is the use of an unacquired language incomprehensibly, while responsive xenoglossy refers to the ability to intelligibly employ the unlearned language as if already acquired.^[9]

Christianity

This phenomenon is mentioned inActs of the Apostleschapter 2 atPentecost,when the first disciples ofJesus Christ,gathered together, numbering one hundred and twenty, and of thetonguesof fire landed on each of them, formalizing the coming of the Spirit in an episode of inspired communication that allows the disciples to express themselves in languages other than Galilean and to be understood by strangers.^[10]^[11]Several accounts of miraculous abilities of some people to read, write, speak or understand a foreign language as mentioned in theBiblehave been related in similar Christian accounts in the Middle Ages.^[12]Similar claims were also made by somePentecostaltheologians in 1901.^[13]

Spiritualism

Claims ofmediumsspeaking foreign languages were made by Spiritualists in the 19th century. More recent claims of xenoglossy have come from reincarnation researchers who have alleged that individuals were able to recall a language spoken in a past life.^[7]Some reports of xenoglossy have surfaced in the popular press, such as Czech speedway riderMatěj Kůswho in September 2007 supposedly awoke after a crash and was able to converse in perfect English; however press reports of his fluency in English were based entirely on anecdotal stories told by his Czech teammates.^[14]Xenoglossy has been claimed to have occurred duringexorcisms.^[15]

Notable claims

Ian Stevenson

Canadianparapsychologistand psychiatrist at the University of VirginiaIan Stevensonclaimed there were a handful of cases that suggested evidence of xenoglossy. These included two where a subject underhypnosiscould allegedly converse with people speaking the foreign language, instead of merely being able to recite foreign words.Sarah Thomason,a linguist at the University of Michigan, reanalyzed these cases, concluding that "the linguistic evidence is too weak to provide support for the claims of xenoglossy".^[6]

When Stevenson investigated an American housewife known as "T. E" who exhibited the male personality of a Swedish farmer named "Jensen Jacoby" while under hypnosis, he reported that the subject was able to converse in Swedish, albeit not fluently. However, Thomason's reanalysis concluded that "Jensen" could not convincingly be claimed to speak Swedish; writing that though "Jensen" had a total vocabulary of about 100 words, "this is not very impressive when compared with the thousands of words known by any native speaker of any natural language, even taking into account the limited contexts in which Jensen spoke Swedish."^[6]Thomason found that "Jensen" gave no complex sentences, mostly giving one or two word answers, and concluded, "[Stevenson's] demonstration that there was no fraud in the case is convincing, but his claim that Jensen had the capacity to speak Swedish is not."^[6]Linguist William Samarin drew the same conclusion as Thomason.^[16]
Stevenson investigated another American woman named Dolores Jay who exhibited the personality of a German teenage girl named "Gretchen" while hypnotized. He claimed that the subject was able to converse in German. Thomason's reanalysis, while acknowledging that the evidence against fraud was convincing, concluded that "Gretchen" could not converse fluently in German and that her speech was largely the repetition of German questions with different intonation, orutterancesof one or two words. Thomason found that the German vocabulary of "Gretchen" was "minute" and her pronunciation was "spotty", adding that Dolores Jay had some previous exposure to German in TV programs and had looked at a German book.^[6]

William J. Samarin, a linguist from theUniversity of Toronto,argues that Stevenson interacted with linguists in a selective and unprofessional manner, noting that Stevenson corresponded with one linguist for a period of six years "without raising any discussion about the kinds of thing that linguists would need to know," and that most of Stevenson's collaborators were "fellow believers"in the paranormal.^[17]

In a review of Stevenson'sUnlearned Language: New Studies in Xenoglossy(1984), William Frawley wrote that Stevenson was too uncritically accepting of a paranormal interpretation of the cases. In one case, a female subject could only answeryes-or-no questionsin German, which Frawley found unimpressive. In another, the female subject could speakBengaliwith poor pronunciation. Frawley noted that she was raised in the language ofMarathi(related to Bengali), had studiedSanskritfrom which both Marathi and Bengali derive, and was living in a town with thousands ofBengalis.He concluded: "Stevenson does not consider enough linguistic evidence in these cases to warrant hismetaphysics."^[18]

Psychologist David Lester evaluated Stevenson's cases and wrote the subjects made grammatical mistakes, mispronounced words, and did not show a wide vocabulary of words in foreign language; he thus concluded that they cannot be considered evidence for xenoglossy.^[19]

Alfred Hulme

In the early 20th century, Alfred Hulme, a self-proclaimedEgyptologist,investigated a young girl named Ivy Carter Beaumont (also known as "Rosemary" ) fromBlackpool, England,who claimed to be under the influence of the personality of aBabylonianprincess. Hulme was convinced she spoke in anancient Egyptiandialect. However, according to linguistKaren Stollznow,"Several scholars examined the data independently and concluded that Hulme's analyses were grossly inaccurate. Hulme had confusedMiddle EgyptianandLate Egyptian"and likely" falsified many results. "^[20]

Eberhardt Gmelin

In 1791 Eberhardt Gmelin, a German physician often credited with discoveringdissociative identity disorder,published a report entitledMaterialien für die Anthropologie,in which he described a case of a 20-year-old German woman from the town ofStuttgartwho would "exchange" her personality for that of aFrench aristocrat.During these "French" states, as Gmelin termed them, she was able to speak French perfectly, despite never having visited afrancophonecountry or been taught the language, and speak her own native tongue, German, with aFrench accent.^[21]^[22]However, this cannot be accepted as an example of xenoglossy, as the woman had probably picked up bits of the language from aristocratic refugees who had arrived at Stuttgart in 1789, the beginning of theFrench Revolution.^{[citation needed]}

Explanations

Most cases of recitative xenoglossy have been interpreted as instances ofcryptomnesia,where memories of a language acquired earlier in life re-enter the consciousness in certain exceptional circumstances.^[23]^[24]

References

^Cf. analogously pronounced entryxenophobicinJones, Daniel(2003) [1917], Peter Roach; James Hartmann; Jane Setter (eds.),English Pronouncing Dictionary,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,ISBN 3125396832
^Cf. analogously pronounced entryxenophobiainJones, Daniel(2003) [1917], Peter Roach; James Hartmann; Jane Setter (eds.),English Pronouncing Dictionary,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,ISBN 3125396832
^"xenoglossia".Dictionary Unabridged(Online). n.d.
^γλῶσσα,Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott,A Greek-English Lexicon,on Perseus
^Zusne, Leonard; Jones, Warren. (1989).Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking.Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 145–146.ISBN 978-0805805079
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^eThomason, Sarah."Xenoglossy ".InGordon Stein.(1996).The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal.Prometheus Books.ISBN 1573920215
^^a ^bMelton, J. Gordon(1 January 2007),The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena,Visible Ink Press, pp. 359–,ISBN 978-1578592098
^Hines, Terence.(2003).Pseudoscience and the Paranormal.Prometheus Books. p. 109.ISBN 1573929794
^Matlock, James G. (2019-06-15).Signs of Reincarnation: Exploring Beliefs, Cases, and Theory.Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN 978-1538124802.
^Mal Couch,A Bible Handbook to the Acts of the Apostles,Kregel Academic, USA, 1999, p. 38
^Bill Lockwood,'Gift of tongues' involved speaking foreign languages,timesrecordnews, USA, December 10, 2016
^Christine F. Cooper-Rompato (2011),The Gift of Tongues: Women's Xenoglossia in the Later Middle Ages,Penn State Press, p. 1-2,ISBN 978-0271036151
^Craig S. Keener,Spirit Hermeneutics,Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, USA, 2016, p. 64
^Crash Victim Wakes Up Speaking English
^Florian Loisy (Sep 12, 2022).""Esprit de mort, sors de cette femme": des séances d'exorcisme à Paris pour "délivrer" des personnes en détresse ".Le Parisien.
^Samarin, William J. (1976).Review of Ian Stevenson Xenoglossy: A Review and Report of a Case.Language52: 270–274.
^Samarin, William J. (1976).Xenoglossy: A Review and Report of a Case by Ian Stevenson.Language.Vol. 52, No. 1. pp. 270–274.
^Frawley, William. (1985).Unlearned Language: New Studies in Xenoglossy by Ian Stevenson.Language.Vol. 61, No. 3. p. 739.
^Lester, David. (2005).Is There Life After Death? An Examination of the Empirical Evidence.McFarland. pp. 123–131.ISBN 978-0786421169
^Stollznow, Karen.(2014).Language Myths, Mysteries and Magic.Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 86–86.ISBN 978-1137404848
^Ellenberger, Henri (1970).The Discovery of the Unconscious.United States: Basic Books. p. 127.ISBN 0465016723.
^Gmelin, Eberhardt (1791).Materialien für die Anthropologie(in German). Germany: Heilbronn und Rotenburg ob der Tauber, Johann Daniel Class.ISBN 978-1272744137.
^Research, American Society for Psychical (1973).Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research.H.B. Turner.
^Draaisma, D. (2015-01-01).Forgetting: Myths, Perils and Compensations.Yale University Press.ISBN 978-0300207286.

Bibliography

Cooper-Rompato, Christine F. (2010).The Gift of Tongues: Women's Xenoglossia in the Later Middle Ages.Pennsylvania State University Press.ISBN 978-0-271-03615-1.
Samarin, William J. (March 1976). "Review of Ian Stevenson Xenoglossy: A Review and Report of a Case".Language.52(1): 270–274.doi:10.2307/413229.JSTOR 413229.
Stevenson, Ian (1974).Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation(Second revised and enlarged ed.). University of Virginia Press.ISBN 0813908728.
Stevenson, Ian (1974).Xenoglossy: A Review and Report of a Case.Charlotte: University Press of Virginia.
Stevenson, Ian (1984).Unlearned Language: New Studies in Xenoglossy.University of Virginia Press.ISBN 0813909945.
Stevenson, Ian (2001).Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Quest of Reincarnation.McFarland & Company.ISBN 0786409134.
Stollznow, Karen(2014).Language Myths, Mysteries and Magic.Palgrave Macmillan.ISBN 978-1137404848.
Thomason, Sarah G.(Winter 1984). "Do you Remember Your Previous Life's Language in Your Present Incarnation?".American Speech.59(4): 340–350.doi:10.2307/454785.JSTOR 454785.
Thomason, Sarah G. (Summer 1987)."Past Tongues Remembered?".The Skeptical Inquirer.11(4): 367–375. Archived fromthe originalon 2020-08-06.
Thomason, Sarah G.(1996)."Xenoglossy"(PDF).In Stein, Gordon (ed.).The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal.Prometheus Books.ISBN 1573920215.Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2023-12-03.

External links

Xenoglossy–The Skeptic's Dictionary

[1] Cf. analogously pronounced entryxenophobicinJones, Daniel(2003) [1917], Peter Roach; James Hartmann; Jane Setter (eds.),English Pronouncing Dictionary,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,ISBN 3125396832

[2] Cf. analogously pronounced entryxenophobiainJones, Daniel(2003) [1917], Peter Roach; James Hartmann; Jane Setter (eds.),English Pronouncing Dictionary,Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,ISBN 3125396832

[3] "xenoglossia".Dictionary Unabridged(Online). n.d.

[4] γλῶσσα,Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott,A Greek-English Lexicon,on Perseus

[5] Zusne, Leonard; Jones, Warren. (1989).Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking.Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 145–146.ISBN 978-0805805079

[www-personal.umich.edu-6] Thomason, Sarah."Xenoglossy ".InGordon Stein.(1996).The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal.Prometheus Books.ISBN 1573920215

[Gordon-7] Melton, J. Gordon(1 January 2007),The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena,Visible Ink Press, pp. 359–,ISBN 978-1578592098

[8] Hines, Terence.(2003).Pseudoscience and the Paranormal.Prometheus Books. p. 109.ISBN 1573929794

[9] Matlock, James G. (2019-06-15).Signs of Reincarnation: Exploring Beliefs, Cases, and Theory.Rowman & Littlefield.ISBN 978-1538124802.

[10] Mal Couch,A Bible Handbook to the Acts of the Apostles,Kregel Academic, USA, 1999, p. 38

[11] Bill Lockwood,'Gift of tongues' involved speaking foreign languages,timesrecordnews, USA, December 10, 2016

[Cooper-Rompato2011-12] Christine F. Cooper-Rompato (2011),The Gift of Tongues: Women's Xenoglossia in the Later Middle Ages,Penn State Press, p. 1-2,ISBN 978-0271036151

[13] Craig S. Keener,Spirit Hermeneutics,Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, USA, 2016, p. 64

[14] Crash Victim Wakes Up Speaking English

[15] Florian Loisy (Sep 12, 2022).""Esprit de mort, sors de cette femme": des séances d'exorcisme à Paris pour "délivrer" des personnes en détresse ".Le Parisien.

[16] Samarin, William J. (1976).Review of Ian Stevenson Xenoglossy: A Review and Report of a Case.Language52: 270–274.

[17] Samarin, William J. (1976).Xenoglossy: A Review and Report of a Case by Ian Stevenson.Language.Vol. 52, No. 1. pp. 270–274.

[18] Frawley, William. (1985).Unlearned Language: New Studies in Xenoglossy by Ian Stevenson.Language.Vol. 61, No. 3. p. 739.

[19] Lester, David. (2005).Is There Life After Death? An Examination of the Empirical Evidence.McFarland. pp. 123–131.ISBN 978-0786421169

[20] Stollznow, Karen.(2014).Language Myths, Mysteries and Magic.Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 86–86.ISBN 978-1137404848

[21] Ellenberger, Henri (1970).The Discovery of the Unconscious.United States: Basic Books. p. 127.ISBN 0465016723.

[22] Gmelin, Eberhardt (1791).Materialien für die Anthropologie(in German). Germany: Heilbronn und Rotenburg ob der Tauber, Johann Daniel Class.ISBN 978-1272744137.

[23] Research, American Society for Psychical (1973).Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research.H.B. Turner.

[24] Draaisma, D. (2015-01-01).Forgetting: Myths, Perils and Compensations.Yale University Press.ISBN 978-0300207286.

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v t e Parapsychology
Outline
Topics	Apparitional experience Astral projection Auras Bilocation Clairvoyance Deathbed phenomena Dermo-optical perception Dream telepathy Ectoplasm Electronic voice phenomenon Extrasensory perception Ganzfeld experiment Ghosts Kirlian photography Levitation Materialization Mediumship Near-death experience Orb Out-of-body experience Pam Reynolds case Paranormal Parapsychology research at SRI Past life regression Plant perception (paranormal) Poltergeist Precognition Psychic Psychic detective Psychic reading Psychic surgery Psychometry Pyrokinesis Reincarnation Remote viewing Retrocognition Second sight Sensory leakage Spoon bending Superconscious Telekinesis Telepathy Thoughtography Xenoglossy Zener cards
Active organizations	American Society for Psychical Research Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena College of Psychic Studies Institut Métapsychique International Institute of Noetic Sciences International Association for Near-Death Studies Koestler Parapsychology Unit Parapsychological Association Parapsychology Foundation Rhine Research Center Society for Psychical Research The Ghost Club
Defunct organizations	American Psychical Institute British College of Psychic Science Cambridge Ghost Society International Institute for Psychical Research London Dialectical Society Metropolitan Psychical Society National Laboratory of Psychical Research Oxford Phasmatological Society Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory Society for the Study of Supernormal Pictures
People	List of parapsychologists Skeptics of parapsychology
Publications	An Experiment with Time Extrasensory Perception Irreducible Mind Journal of Near-Death Studies Journal of Parapsychology Journal of Scientific Exploration Life After Life Life Before Life Mental Radio Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence for Past Lives Parapsychology: Frontier Science of the Mind The Roots of Coincidence Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation Varieties of Anomalous Experience
Category Commons

v t e Reincarnation research
Principal field researchers	Erlendur Haraldsson Antonia Mills Satwant Pasricha Ian Stevenson Jim B. Tucker
Other researchers	Robert Almeder Carol Bowman Stephen E. Braude Gina Cerminara C. T. K. Chari Curt Ducasse Peter Fenwick Joe Fisher Théodore Flournoy Andrea Foulkes Yonassan Gershom Arthur Guirdham Raynor Johnson Frederick Lenz Vicki Mackenzie Raymond Moody Gardner Murphy Michael Newton‎ Jane Roberts D. Scott Rogo Godwin Samararatne Tom Shroder Jess Stearn Brian Weiss Carl Wickland
Books	Children's Past Lives European Cases of the Reincarnation Type Life After Life: The Investigation of a Phenomenon—Survival of Bodily Death Life Before Life: A Scientific Investigation of Children's Memories of Previous Lives Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence For Past Lives Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Etiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect
Cases	Corliss Chotkin Jenny Cockell Shanti Devi Dorothy Eady Arthur Flowerdew Joan Grant Dolores Jay Ada Kay Bridey Murphy Lobsang Rampa Edward Ryall Hélène Smith