People get their tangs all tongueled up

I heard some mispronunciations while watching church services on the telly recently, and I would like to pass them on to you. Not only would I like to, I am going to whether you want me to or not.

I heard a preacher say "DeuterOMONY" instead of "DeuterONOMY". I thought, "What?"

I heard a different preacher say "VietMANese" instead of "VietNAMese". Ditto.

Such errors jar the ears of careful listeners, but I think the effect is worse when a preacher makes them, because it brings into question everything else of a spiritual nature that the preacher is trying to persuade his congregation to accept.

The mind, aided by the the seemingly ever-present enemy of the soul, immediately thinks, "Well, if he can't even get that right, can I trust him on the weightier matters, things of a spiritual nature?" At leas, that is where my mind goes. Confession is good for the soul, I've heard.

Maybe I'm being overly critical (ya think?). Maybe it's just another opportunity for EGR (where Extra Grace is Required).

Let us now pivot to another subject.

I used to think people who spoke in tongues were speaking gibberish. Then I learned of a musical group called Ladysmith Black Mombazo, who sang with Paul Simon on his Graceland album back in 1986. You may remember Paul Simon, the fellow who teamed up with Art Garfunkel -- Simon and Garfunkel -- on such hits as "The Sound Of Silence" and "Bridge Over Troubled Water". The founder of Ladysmith Black Mombazo was Joseph Shabalala, and as recently as May 2026 the members of Ladysmith Black Mombazo, which is still going strong, include Mfanafuthi Dlamini, Thamsanqa Shabalala, Sibongiseni Shabalala, Sabelo Mthembu, Thulani Shabalala, Gagamela Shabalala, and Msizi Shabalala, according to Wikipedia.

When you say their names you are speaking in tongues and the language is Zulu. The point I'm trying to make is that if you should ever find yourself in a Pentecostal worship service and hear someone speak in a tongue that is filled with repetetive syllables, it is not necessarily an indication that the tongue is gibberish. Perhaps it is not even a human language but an angelic one, as Saint Paul told the Corinthians that there are such things, beginning Chapter 13 of his letter to them with the words, "Though I speak with the tongues of me and of angels and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal" (except that he wrote it in Greek, of course).

Or maybe their tangs are all tongueled up. Or maybe their tongues get in the way of their eye teeth and they can't see what they are saying.

Okay, I'm reaching now.

It must be time to close this post.

If you don't understand this post at all, why should this post be any different from all the others?

T.T.F.N.

P.S. - For a fascinating look at the languages of this world in a post from 2010, even though the figures on the number of people who speak them are now 16 years out of date, click here .