Glossolalic speech from a psycholinguistic perspective

This is a psycholinguistic study of glossolalia produced by four speakers in an experimental setting. Acoustical patterns (signal waveform, fundamental frequency, and amplitude changes) were compared. The frequency of occurrence of vowels and consonants was computed for the glossolalic samples and compared with General American English. The results showed that three of the four speakers had substantially higher vowel-to-consonant ratios than are found in English speech. Phonology, morphology, and syntax of the four glossolalic productions were analyzed. This revealed two distinct forms of glossolalia. One form, which we called "formulaic" tends towards stereotypy and repetitiousness. The second form, which we called "innovative" shows more novelty and unpredictability in the chaining of speech-like elements. These contrastive forms of glossolalia may relate to dimensions of linguistic creativity. Precise correlates with personality patterns, educational backgrounds, psychopathology, and other sociolinguistic variables remain to be employed.