Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site bbncca.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!decvax!bbncca!rrizzo From: rrizzo@bbncca.ARPA (Ron Rizzo) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: id AA20452; Thu, 16 Feb 84 05:27:41 pst Message-ID: <590@bbncca.ARPA> Date: Fri, 17-Feb-84 12:50:30 EST Article-I.D.: bbncca.590 Posted: Fri Feb 17 12:50:30 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 18-Feb-84 04:24:14 EST References: <5652@decwrl.UUCP> Organization: Bolt, Beranek and Newman, Cambridge, Ma. Lines: 18 So speaking in tongues ("glossolalia") is gibberish , but it's still holy! What a demotion of religion that is! The little I've heard about studies of the phenomenon revealed that every case studied, which is apparently quite a few, showed linguistically rather trivial things going on: simple changes in one or more phonolo- gical rules of standard English managed to produce the streams of ap- parent gibberish. & if that didn't suffice to make it sound exotic, speeding up or rhythmically inflecting the delivery did. Well, is any suitably bizarre behavior worshipful, profound, pious? Psychotic episodes? General zaniness? --- "Why, my ancestors fed people like you to big kitties!" Cheers, Ron Rizzo