[BikerJoe]

I have heard many foreign languages, and was fluent in one at one time (since faded).

I've also heard some of the folk who claim to speak in tongues do so, and to my ear, they are not speaking a language, they are babbling.

[Cronos]

The sad thing about languages is that if you don't keep in touch regularly, they fade. I used to be able to speak street Arabic but now have forgotten all of that and can only remember the La Illah. I'm lucky that I can now keep in touch with my French but I've forgotten my German completely (which I was never very good at) since I started learning Polish.

Why do you think it was babbling as opposed to a real language or language of angels?

[elcid1970]

Believe me, `speaking in tongues’ is not only babbling, it’s “Hey, look at me, I’ve got the Spirit!”

See & heard it. Calling attention to oneself.

Like the Evan Baxter scene in “Bruce Almighty”, IMO.

[DrewsMum]

You know every language there is on earth? The whole point is that the tongue is unknown to the hearer....that is the sign to the people around the person that they have recv the Spirit....

[MayflowerMadam]

“Babbling” is correct. At Penetocst, in the Early Church, etc., people “spoke in tongues” so that everyone could understand the message. Current “speaking in tongues” is the exact opposite in that NOBODY can understand the “babbling”. It’s very weird. (And I’m not Presbyterian.)