Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is a practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker.

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The tongue (L. lingua; G. glossa) functions as a digestive organ by facilitating the movement of food during mastication and assisting swallowing. Other important functions include speech and taste.

Every believer does not receive the gift of tongues. However, everyone who receives the baptism (God filling this person with himself) of the Holy Spirit receives the gift of tongues. Not everyone, who receives the baptism (God filling this person with himself) of the Holy Spirit speaks in tongues.

According to Jehovah’s Witnesses. For the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Gift of tongues was provisionally a reality in the 1st century in the apostles to promote Christianity after the ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven, after which such ability ceased.

These abilities, often termed “charismatic gifts”, are the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, increased faith, the gifts of healing, the gift of miracles, prophecy, the discernment of spirits, diverse kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues.

Talking in tongues is a streaming babble of nonsense syllables delivered with a curious calm authority, as if what the speaker were saying made incontrovertible sense, even though it contains no recognisable words.

In modern times, speaking in tongues was an occasional occurrence in Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, Lutheranism, and other more-established Christian denominations. It was also present in many non-Christian traditions.

Speaking in tongues is an ancient Christian practice recorded in the New Testament in which people pray in a language they do not know, understand or control. The practice died out until Pentecostalism emerged around the turn of the 20th century.