Xenoglossy, also spelled xenoglossia or sometimes xenolalia, is a phenomenon in which a person is said to speak, write, or understand a language they did not learn through normal methods. The word comes from the Ancient Greek words xenos, meaning "foreigner," and glōssa, meaning "tongue" or "language." The term was first used in 1905 by French parapsychologist Charles Richet. Stories about xenoglossy appear in the New Testament, and modern researchers, such as parapsychologists and reincarnation experts like Ian Stevenson, have reported similar cases. However, some people question whether xenoglossy is real, and there is no scientific evidence that supports the claims of xenoglossy.

There are two types of xenoglossy. Recitative xenoglossy happens when someone uses a language they did not learn, but others cannot understand what they are saying. Responsive xenoglossy occurs when someone uses a language they did not learn, but others can understand them clearly, as if they had learned the language before.

Christianity

This event is described in the book Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2, during Pentecost. At this time, the first followers of Jesus Christ, who were gathered together in a group of 120 people, saw flames of fire resting on each of them. This showed that the Holy Spirit had arrived, allowing the disciples to speak in different languages. This enabled them to be understood by people who did not speak their language. Similar stories about people having special abilities, such as reading, writing, or understanding foreign languages, are found in the Bible and in Christian writings from the Middle Ages. Some Pentecostal theologians also claimed similar experiences in 1901.

Spiritualism

In the 19th century, Spiritualists claimed that mediums could speak foreign languages. More recently, researchers who study reincarnation have said that some people can remember languages they spoke in past lives. Some stories about this ability, called xenoglossy, have appeared in the news. For example, in September 2007, a Czech speedway rider named Matěj Kůs reportedly began speaking English fluently after a crash. However, reports about his English skills were based only on stories told by his teammates. Xenoglossy has also been claimed to occur during exorcisms.

Notable claims

Canadian psychologist and psychiatrist Ian Stevenson, who worked at the University of Virginia, said there were a few cases that seemed to show evidence of xenoglossy. Xenoglossy is when someone speaks a language they were not taught. In two cases, people under hypnosis could supposedly hold conversations in a foreign language, not just repeat words. Sarah Thomason, a linguist from the University of Michigan, studied these cases again and said the evidence was not strong enough to support the idea of xenoglossy.

William J. Samarin, a linguist from the University of Toronto, said Stevenson did not work well with linguists. He noted that Stevenson had a long conversation with one linguist for six years without discussing important language-related topics. Most of Stevenson’s helpers, Samarin said, were people who believed in paranormal events.

William Frawley, a reviewer of Stevenson’s book Unlearned Language: New Studies in Xenoglossy (1984), said Stevenson accepted paranormal explanations without enough proof. In one case, a girl could only answer yes-or-no questions in German, which Frawley found unimpressive. In another, a girl spoke Bengali but with poor pronunciation. Frawley explained that she grew up speaking Marathi, a language related to Bengali, and had studied Sanskrit, the language from which both Marathi and Bengali come. She also lived near many Bengalis. Frawley concluded that Stevenson ignored important language details that could explain the cases without needing supernatural ideas.

Psychologist David Lester studied Stevenson’s cases and found that the people involved made grammar mistakes, mispronounced words, and did not know many words in the foreign languages. He said this meant the cases could not prove xenoglossy.

In the early 1900s, Alfred Hulme, who claimed to be an Egyptologist, studied a girl named Ivy Carter Beaumont (also called "Rosemary") from Blackpool, England. She said she was influenced by the personality of a Babylonian princess and could speak an ancient Egyptian dialect. However, linguist Karen Stollznow said that other scholars reviewed the evidence and found Hulme’s work was incorrect. Hulme confused two types of Egyptian languages and may have made up some results.

In 1791, Eberhardt Gmelin, a German doctor often credited with discovering dissociative identity disorder, wrote a report called Materialien für die Anthropologie. He described a 20-year-old German woman from Stuttgart who would switch her personality to that of a French aristocrat. During these times, she spoke French perfectly, even though she had never lived in a French-speaking country or been taught the language. She also spoke German with a French accent. However, this is not considered xenoglossy, as she likely learned some French from aristocratic refugees who arrived in Stuttgart in 1789, at the start of the French Revolution.

Explanations

Most cases of recitative xenoglossy are usually considered examples of cryptomnesia, which happens when memories of a language learned when someone was younger return to their mind in specific unusual situations.