Xenoglossy, also spelled xenoglossia or sometimes xenolalia, is a claimed unusual phenomenon where a person is said to be able to speak, write, or understand a language they have not learned through normal ways. 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 a French scientist named Charles Richet. Stories about xenoglossy appear in the New Testament, and some modern scientists and researchers who study reincarnation, like Ian Stevenson, have reported similar cases. However, many experts are unsure if xenoglossy is real, and there is no scientific proof that supports these claims.

There are two types of xenoglossy. Recitative xenoglossy happens when someone uses a language they have not learned, but others cannot understand what they are saying. Responsive xenoglossy occurs when someone uses an unlearned language in a way that others can understand, as if they had already learned it.

Christianity

This event is described in the book of Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2, during Pentecost. At this time, the first followers of Jesus Christ, who numbered 120 people, were gathered together. Tongues of fire appeared on each of them, marking the arrival of the Holy Spirit. This allowed the disciples to speak in languages other than their native Galilean dialect, and people from other places could understand them. Similar stories about people having the ability to read, write, or speak foreign languages are found in other Christian writings from the Middle Ages. In 1901, some Pentecostal theologians also claimed similar experiences.

Spiritualism

In the 19th century, Spiritualists claimed that mediums could speak foreign languages. More recently, reincarnation researchers have said that some people can remember languages they spoke in past lives. Some reports about this ability, called xenoglossy, have appeared in the media. For example, in September 2007, a Czech speedway rider named Matěj Kůs reportedly spoke English perfectly after waking up from a crash. However, these claims were based only on stories shared by his teammates. Xenoglossy has also been reported during exorcisms.

Notable claims

Canadian scientist Ian Stevenson, who worked at the University of Virginia, studied cases that some people claimed showed evidence of xenoglossy, which is the ability to speak a language that a person has not learned. In some cases, people under hypnosis supposedly could hold conversations in foreign languages, not just repeat words. However, Sarah Thomason, a linguist from the University of Michigan, reviewed these cases and found that 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 other linguists. He noted that Stevenson spent six years communicating with one linguist without discussing important topics that linguists usually study. Most of Stevenson’s collaborators, Samarin added, were people who believed in paranormal events.

In a review of Stevenson’s book Unlearned Language: New Studies in Xenoglossy (1984), William Frawley wrote that Stevenson accepted paranormal explanations without enough proof. For example, one case involved a woman who could only answer yes-or-no questions in German, which Frawley considered weak evidence. Another case involved a woman who spoke Bengali with poor pronunciation. Frawley pointed out that she had grown up speaking Marathi, a language related to Bengali, and had studied Sanskrit, which is the origin of both languages. She also lived in a town with many Bengali speakers. Frawley concluded that Stevenson ignored important linguistic details that could explain the cases without needing paranormal ideas.

Psychologist David Lester studied Stevenson’s cases and found that the subjects made grammar mistakes, mispronounced words, and used only a small number of foreign language words. He concluded that these cases did not prove xenoglossy.

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

In 1791, Eberhardt Gmelin, a German doctor who is often credited with discovering dissociative identity disorder, wrote a report titled 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 case cannot be considered xenoglossy because she likely learned some French from aristocratic refugees who had arrived in Stuttgart in 1789, when the French Revolution began.

Explanations

Most cases of speaking in a language not known have been explained as examples of hidden memory, where memories of a language learned earlier in life return to the mind during special situations.