@ Presidente –
The woman speaking Swedish was, as far as I know, not specifically a Christian example of ‘tongues’; rather, just a supposed case of xenoglossy; just like the other two well-known examples I mentioned – Bengali and German . The conclusion was based upon studies done by several various people.
Google some of Ozman’s writing samples – to my knowledge, these may be the only written specimens of “tongues” around. As I’m sure you know, ‘tongues’ are almost strictly a spoken phenomenon, though some people report they write in ‘tongues’. I’ve asked for examples from some of these people, but to date have not gotten any.
With respect to glossolalia in general, a related phenomenon to Christian ‘tongues’ is the so-called ‘light-language’. It’s essentially produced the same way tongues are, but one of the main differences is that ‘light-language’ also relies heavily on the healing power of sound/tones, so various tones/pitches are intoned during the speaking. Another characteristic of light-language is that it is frequently ‘written’. The various writing systems used are all self-created and are typically based on the imagination of their creator. Some are artistically quite beautiful. They remind me a lot of something you’d see in a sci-fi type movie.
The point is, that Ozman’s Chinese writing is very obviously not Chinese (or anything else for that matter).
With respect to Greek - After Alexander’s conquests, Greek eventually came to replace native indigenous languages in these lands – the process was faster in some places than in others. In some places, such as Egypt, the result was virtually the same as it was for English after the Normand Conquest – the influence of Greek fundamentally changed the entire language. Egyptian is perhaps the best example. Not only did the entire language change, but even the way it was written for thousands of years was changed. Large cities where Jews tended to live such as Alexandria were essentially all Greek speaking.
By the time Paul wrote to the Galicians, Greek had long replaced their original Celtic language. Many other languages followed suit; by the first century AD, they were dead, having long since been replaced by Greek.
Yes, there were converts in the crowd, but depending on where they came from, it’s likely Greek would have been their native language. Conversion to Judaism seems to have been happening more in the west (Greek speaking lands) than in the east.
Many people who refer to tongues as ‘prayer language’ hold that they are, or sometimes can be, a real rational language. Hebrew and Aramaic seem to be the two main “go to” languages. Unfortunately, all such claims are anecdotal at best.
@cv5 –
I guess it depends on what you call “professionally trained” – I’m a trained linguist, though I do not work professionally as a linguist.
@Dino246 –
The gifts listed as Spiritual Gifts can also be found in other religious traditions. I don’t think that say the prophesying of a shaman in some remote village is any less ‘real’ or accurate than that of a Christian doing the same thing – the context and message would obviously be different based on culture, beliefs, and whatnot, but there’s essentially no difference. Same with healing and other spiritual gifts. So in a sense, somewhat to your point, these things are not specific to Christianity.