Predictability Associated With Reduction in Phonetic Signals Without Semantics-The Case of Glossolalia.
Samantha Link, Fabian Tomaschek
PMID 37070153WHAT IT FOUND
Glossolalia syllables are not random.
Frequent and predictable syllables are spoken faster and shorter, mirroring natural speech patterns. This suggests motor programs for syllables are shaped by practice frequency, not meaning, offering a model for studying speech planning without semantics.
Key findings
01Glossolalia syllables follow a statistical distribution similar to natural languages, with frequent and predictable syllables being shorter.
02Practitioners do not share a common lexicon; instead, each individual develops their own set of syllables with little overlap between speakers.
03The duration of glossolalia syllables correlates with their probability in both the glossolalia corpus and the speakers' native German, suggesting shared motor representations.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size is small (11 speakers) and homogeneous (all from the same church in South-Eastern Germany, all native German speakers). Glossolalia is a rare phenomenon, limiting generalizability to other speech tasks. The study relies on self-recorded data, which may have variable quality compared to laboratory settings. The findings are correlational; the study does not prove that frequency causes duration reduction, only that they are associated.
Declared interests
The research was supported by a collaborative grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Spoken Morphology). No commercial conflicts of interest are reported.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret this as evidence that glossolalia is a language or that it has communicative value. The study shows it has statistical structure similar to language, but the authors explicitly state it lacks semantics and syntax, and practitioners do not share a common lexicon.