@ Presidente -
I see the language as something supernatural the speaker would not generally understand.
I would respectfully argue that that’s the only way tongues-speakers can view it. If it were real rational language(s), it would kind of negate the whole ‘tongues’ thing.
What I don't get is why you would think that Paul would characterize praying in a foreign language as the spirit of the individual praying as opposed to the understanding praying.
Again, I think you’re misunderstanding, or maybe I’m not getting what you’re saying. The language the speaker uses is irrelevant; it’s the fact that the audience/those listening to him, do not speak/understand it; therefore, what you’re saying is a mystery to them. “Praying in the Spirit” has nothing whatsoever to do with “tongues” or what language a person uses to pray in; it’s how they are praying, not what language they’re doing it in.
I am not sure what languages you think Paul knew only faintly. I thought with the diglossia theory you were of the opinion that there were rather few languages in the Grecco-Roman world, and all the Jews in the east would have spoken Greek rather than local languages.
I don’t think anyone has the answer to that one – as a “world traveler” of his day, he would have been able to get by just about anywhere he went (in looking at a map of his journeys) with Greek, Latin and Aramaic (it’s likely he had knowledge of Hebrew as well, but obviously not as an everyday spoken language).
Most of the places he went to fell into the lands of the Western Diaspora – countries and lands that had long been Hellenized with Greek having replaced indigenous languages for several generations. Greek, by far, would have likely been Paul’s primary language in his travels.
It seems he makes a point of going to a lot of sea-ports; i.e. places with a pretty good cross-section of cultures and languages. This makes perfect sense – by comparison, if one wants to spread the message of a new religion to the world, and you were from the US, I’m pretty sure you’d choose New York City, or Los Angeles over ‘East Wheatfield’, Kansas.
In addition to the three languages above, it stands to reason that he may have picked up a little of other more distantly spoken languages from some of the travelers to those ports. I don’t think he spoke them with any degree of fluency, perhaps a few everyday phrases.
With respect to his statement in 1 Cor. 14:19 though, I would take it to mean as I’ve described it, I also think it likely he was just using himself as an example in a hypothetical situation. If I say something like, “I’d rather spend my money on a yacht than on a plane”. It doesn’t mean I’m planning on buying either one, nor for that matter does it even mean I have the money to buy something like that – I’m just using myself in a hypothetical example to illustrate a point. I suspect it’s the same here, which, of course, is likely to be an issue for those who take the Bible literally word for word.
But let's say he spoke just a bit of Lyaconian. He would still be speaking with his 'understanding' in Lyaconian, even if he had an accent and had to circumlocute a bit to get his point across.
Yes, he’d still be speaking with his ‘understanding’ of that language (limited though it may be), but since this part of his letter calls for clarity and understanding in a public service so that all may benefit, his concern I think would be that he wouldn’t want to circumlocute at all. There’s a pretty good chance he’d miss some of the nuance and clarity he wants to communicate. Better to speak a few words in a language you’re comfortable with and can covey those nuances and retain clarity, than a language where you’re not sure you’re really getting your point across (perhaps the 10,000 words vs. 5 words is his way of speaking to the concept of circumlocution – just a thought to consider).
No, the last part of the post (in red) was from someone else, not you – sorry for the confusion.