Luke names 15 different languages in verses 8-11. There is an interesting note here to be found in Acts 2:8. You will find a different word being used for tongues in the Greek. The Greek word here is dialektos from which we get Our English word dialect. This word refers to the specific language of a nation. This is confirmed in Acts 2:6 when it speaks of each person hearing in their own tongue "language". "The word translated as "language" is dialekto from which our word "dialect" comes. The two terms "tongue" (glossa) and "language" (dialectos) are obviously used interchangeably here, making it clear that the disciples were speaking in other languages."(Burdick 1969 15) Words like "languages" and "dialect" indicate that this is not ecstatic speech. The same term for language is used later in the book of Acts and in 1 Corinthians. Both Acts tongues and the true gift of tongues in Corinthians are the same. The "languages" as referred to in Acts is in the plural form. The reason for this is because there are many different languages. The ecstatic gibberish and babble that makes up our modern day version can never appear in the plural form because there are not many different kinds of gibberish or babble. Jimmy Jividen even speaks of this when defining tongues in our modern age. "Glossolalia is somtimes defined as "ecstatic speech connected with religious excitement."(Jividen 1971 12) .
It is utterance of uncomprehended and seemly .
random speech in sounds . . . . The speech.
itself rises in an effortless flow of .
unusually complex structure, with the .
repetition and inflection characteristic of .
language. It is neither controlled nor .
directly understood by the speaker, but .
takes possession of his speech. While known.
to him, but not the speaker, the meaning is .
almost always spoken by an interpretation. .
(Kelsey 1964, 1).
Whenever Paul wanted to refer to the real gift of languages he used the plural form.