Friday, April 27, 2012

X is for Xenoglossia

Xenoglossia refers to a person's knowledge of a language they have never studied. Pretty random, right? I confess, X is a pretty difficult letter, but this does relate! (Ok, the random Xenoglossia Anime doesn't really relate, but how could I pass it up?)

In my latest MS, Daughter of the Moon, the main character discovers she can speak the language of the Underworld. This comes as quite a shock since she has never before heard the language until she fluently speaks the words herself. And when those spoken words result in magic, she can't pretend the language isn't real. There's a good explanation for all of this, but I don't want to give it away :)

Have you read any novels where a character suddenly speaks a language they have no known prior knowledge of? I'm looking for examples, but having a hard time finding any (and I don't mean speaking in tongues).

8 comments:

  1. What a great idea! I don't know of any books where the mc can suddenly speak a different language... except Harry Potter, where he speaks parseltongue.

    Sounds like you've got a really original premise! Awesome!

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    1. Ah, how could I have forgotten about Harry Potter?! *hangs head in shame*

      Thanks for the reminder :)

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  2. Harry Potter's a great example. I read a MG fantasy series a long, long time ago where the MC use a magic gem of speaking to help her instantly learn the language of the land.

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    1. That sounds like an interesting idea too with the magic gem!

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  3. I almost did xenoglossy as my X topic, but I decided to make my theme consistent. I've actually experienced xenoglossy, when I've had my past life dreams. It's not an uncommon phenomenon among those of us who've had past life dreams or undergone regressions. In my case, I dreamt in fluent German, and had at least one dream in Polish.

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    1. Wow, this is something I didn't realize actually happened to people - what an experience that must have been!

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  4. Harry Potter came to mind for me too... speaking parsel tongue. I like the idea of it. Love your title too!!

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    1. I so can't believe I didn't think of parsel tongue, haha. But I'm glad you guys reminded me of that perfect example :)

      Thanks for the title love!

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