This very instructive case of English misuse was e-mailed to me a few days ago by my friend Ed Maranan, a Hall of Famer of the Palanca Awards for Literature:
“In the February 10, 2012 editorial of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, ‘Hollow Victory,’ the last sentence of the third paragraph reads: ‘Add speaking in forked tongues to the serious character flaws the country’s highest magistrate seems to be afflicted with.’
“In the phrase ‘speaking in forked tongues,’ the editorial writer combined or conflated two well-known expressions, ‘speaking with a forked tongue’—which, in Native American folklore, means ‘telling lies’—and ‘speaking in tongues’ or glossolalia, which is the uttering of words or phrases from foreign languages previously unknown to the speaker (this is a supposedly Christian phenomenon characteristic of religious or mystical possession). But even if one speaks an unlimited number of foreign languages when religiously or mystically possessed, it can only be with just one ‘forked tongue.’ In relation to Chief Justice Renato Corona, though, the editorial writer got it wrong. That sentence in question obviously called for ‘speaking with a forked tongue,’ the Native American expression for the White Man’s wily ways of using stealth and falsehood to conquer the natives.”
My open reply to Ed:
You’re correct in your analysis of the mistaken use of “speaking in forked tongues” by that Inquirer editorial. The preposition “in” and the plural “tongues” are both incorrect, so that phrase couldn’t be just a copyediting or proofreading error. Quite simply, it’s a “slip of the tongue,” or, more aptly (since it’s written and not spoken), a “slip of the mind.” The phrase “speaking in forked tongues” is, in fact, an egregious example of a “mixed metaphor,” a figure of speech that combines an inconsistent or incongruous figurative analogy. You will recall that mixed metaphors are such a big no-no in formal English writing that a student who deliberately or unwittingly uses one in an essay or term paper risks getting a reprimand or even a failing grade for it.
