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It has often been said that people can speak in languages that were not formerly known to them. Arguably the most often recited example of this is in the context of demonic possession. For example, those supposedly possessed by malevolent spirits apparently can and regularly do speak in languages they do not know — so often has this happened that it is evidently one of the four criteria typical for "demonic possession":

True demonic or satanic possession has been characterized since the Middle Ages, in the Rituale Romanum, by the following four typical characteristics:[9][10][11]

  1. Manifestation of superhuman strength.
  2. Speaking in tongues or languages that the victim cannot know.
  3. Revelation of knowledge, distant or hidden, that the victim cannot know.
  4. Blasphemous rage and an aversion to holy symbols or relics.

For whatever reason, it is usually Latin. In any case, the key feature is that it is a language unknown to the supposedly possessed speaker, and the phenomenon is called xenoglossia (not to be mistaken for glossolalia, or speaking in tongues, or bilingual aphasia being the transposition of linguistic competence).

The ability to speak in languages previously unknown to a speaker seems to be a testable hypothesis, particularly with modern day recording technology.

Just for clarity, here is a citations defining the claim:

Xenoglossia: Xenoglossia is the sudden and abrupt ability to speak in multiple languages (2). It is imperative that the demonologist look for signs that back up the fact that the suspected victim of demonic possession did not have prior knowledge of such languages or any kind of fluency in the languages exhibited before denoting the appearance of multiple language usage as an indication of possession. It should be noted that in some reported cases of mental illness, an individual can present the ability to suddenly speak in previously unlearned languages. Instances of savantism and genius should also be ruled out before xenoglossia is deemed a sign or symptom of demonic possession.

Is there any evidence regarding the existence of this phenomenon?

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Brian M. Hunt
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    Has anyone ever been possessed? There is an unconfirmed case of a person in Croatia waking up from a coma speaking fluent German. Read more about [Foreign Accent Syndrome](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_accent_syndrome) on Wikipedia. – oosterwal Jul 31 '13 at 00:24
  • @oosterwal thanks for the link. I seem to recall a case of a Croatian who woke up able to speak German being one of bilingual aphasia. – Brian M. Hunt Jul 31 '13 at 00:28
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    @oosterwal I would also add that the phenomenon of bilingual aphasia is a well documented medical condition that arises from brain damage to the area of the brain where ones first spoken language is contained, which is a different area of the brain from second languages. As a result of damage to the area where the first language is controlled the area controlling the second language(s) "kicks in". As damage (e.g. hemorrhaging) subsides, the first language may recover. In any case, it doesn't qualify here because the second language would have been known to the affected person. – Brian M. Hunt Jul 31 '13 at 12:55
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    @rob The question doesn't ask about demonic possession. It asks if xenoglossia has happened, thereby satisfying the "criteria" of "so called" demonic possessions". All Brian is saying is that xenoglossia is a criteria that some people use to detect demonic possessions, but isn't asking us to examine the latter. –  Jul 31 '13 at 15:48
  • A [discussion](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/2482/discussion-re-has-anyone-possessed-ever-spoken-in-language-they-did-not-know) has been started on skeptics.meta to see if we can fix the untestable and undefined things in this question. – oosterwal Jul 31 '13 at 16:08
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    Many Christian churches have many many claims of people who were "speaking in tounges"" being "translated" by people who spoke the language to the speaker. Theres where I would start. – Mooing Duck Aug 01 '13 at 15:23
  • I have spoken in a language I didn't know. I can often read passages in foreign languages and recite them (with varying degrees of accuracy), without undrestanding them or speaking the language. – Flimzy Aug 01 '13 at 17:07
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    Opera singers regularly sing in languages they do not know. I do not know if this is the answer the OP was looking for but that does exist. – Neil Meyer Oct 28 '13 at 10:02
  • I'd suggest a revision of "a language the person cannot know" to something more along the lines of "a language the person has never seen/heard." Harder to answer, but I think it better targets what is really being asked. My interpretation is that "cannot know" could be construed to mean "has never been known to happen before." Prior to witnessing and understanding many incredible phenomenon, we probably thought it couldn't happen. So a fluke instance of speaking a foreign language one has been exposed to, if I get the heart of your question, wouldn't count. – Hendy Jan 25 '14 at 04:47
  • The problem with this question is that to answer "no" you will need to refute all the hundreds (thousands?) of those alleged cases and still there will be more of them. – sashkello Feb 25 '14 at 04:01
  • @sashkello: One verifiable example will do. That it has never once been recorded in history tells us something. – Brian M. Hunt Feb 26 '14 at 21:54
  • @oosterwal: note that it is called "foreign **accent** syndrome" for a reason... the accent changes (because, for instance, of changes in the control of the muscles in the mouth) but, as the page you linked precises: *speakers suffering from foreign accent syndrome acquire neither a specific foreign accent nor any additional fluency in a foreign language*. The Croatian case is listed as *an unconfirmed news report* so it should be treated as such. – nico Mar 29 '14 at 08:18
  • It's a poor source, but there's the story of [Old Man Henderson](http://1d4chan.org/wiki/Old_Man_Henderson#Director.27s_Cut_Part_1), whose backstory includes pages written in perfectly-executed German. According to another player in the game, the person who wrote Henderson's story only knows a small handful of German words. – Brian S May 05 '14 at 13:48
  • This should be rephrased or it will never have an answer. There is no claim that there are no people speaking in tongues: it's merely a null hypothesis (lacking proof no one can claim xenoglossia). There are no invisible pink unicorns in my garage either (prove it!) ;-). It's up to the OP to bring a specific example of someone claiming specific examples we can debunk or confirm. Closing until such an example is given. – Sklivvz May 05 '14 at 16:05
  • @Sklivvz - I am not sure that there being no example that answers this question is *entirely* useless. :) The longer the question is up and the more viewers there are the stronger the conclusion that xenoglossia has never happened becomes. Of course I totally appreciate your concern, and am open to edits too. I just personally don't mind this question never being answered, and it may be possible to draw conclusions from it not being answered. – Brian M. Hunt May 05 '14 at 16:27
  • @Sklivvz Doesn't the question only have to identify a notable claim? Ie. Do people believe that people have spoken in a language that they did not know? That is the test for notability. It does not require that the asker present a specific instance of such a person that people hold this belief about. –  May 05 '14 at 16:53
  • @Sklivvz If you want to close questions that are unfalsifiable, that is a separate close reason that we could add via a meta discussion. I would support that, but until then, we can't use off-topic/non-notable as a substitute. –  May 05 '14 at 16:55
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    @Articuno there are very few specific claims of xenoglossia (look on Wikipedia for a list). Asking if any of them is real is ok. Asking if there are any other cases is not a question about a claim. In general, I can't decide which Brian meant: this is a relatively old question. The question is not closed as unfalsifiable, but as not containing a claim (a null hypothesis is not a claim). – Sklivvz May 05 '14 at 16:58
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    The claim is "[some] people can speak in languages that were not formerly known to them". That is a claim, and it is notable. There exist many people that believe it is true. –  May 05 '14 at 16:58
  • @Articuno ok, then that claim is unclear. *who* is claimed to be able to speak in languages? – Sklivvz May 05 '14 at 17:33
  • @Sklivvz The claim is that "there exist people that can do X". In the question "Are yowies real", we don't demand that the asker tells us "what thing is claimed to be a yowie". For http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/3327/do-evil-twins-exist, we don't demand "*who* is claimed to be an evil twin". For http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/788/do-ghosts-exist, we don't demand "*what* is claimed to be a ghost". –  May 05 '14 at 17:44
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    The claim "some people can speak in languages that were not formerly known to them" is very clear. Just because you don't understand it isn't a reason to close the question. –  May 05 '14 at 17:45
  • @Articuno right: look at the answers. They are not very good, in fact, they are crap. Why? Because the questions are clearly badly posed. They are ancient questions, the same questions would certainly not fly today. – Sklivvz May 05 '14 at 17:46
  • Okay. So, we no longer accept "there exist X" claims? We now require claims to be claims to be more like "Y is an X"? –  May 05 '14 at 17:47
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    let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/14335/discussion-between-sklivvz-and-articuno) – Sklivvz May 05 '14 at 17:48

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There's a case report A case of secondary personality with xenoglossy from 1979 where the Indian woman in question developed a secondary personality which spoke fluent Bengali, a language the family did not speak. However, the fact that the subject worked at a university makes one very suspicious as to what resources she had available to her. So, a single case report from searching PubMed hardly constitutes scientifically confirmed.

HappySpoon
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