Possibly with articles like this in the Metro:
Ah Mamma, Italians are like chimps
Monday, April 30, 2007
Can you spot the difference? Ever thought all that Italian waving of hands was just monkeying around?
Well, Latin gesticulating may actually be aping the way chimpanzees communicate, scientists have discovered.
Both chimps and bonobos communicate more freely using gestures than they do by means of vocal sounds and facial expressions.
Their findings support the theory that human language evolved from the Italian-like gesturing.
One gesture in particular holding out an open hand to beg – was common to chimps, bonobos and humans.
It may have been inherited from the last common ancestor of apes and humans, said scientists.
Dr Frans de Waal, a researcher at a primate research centre in Atlanta, Georgia, said: 'This gesture can be used for food, if there is food around, but it can also be used to beg for help, for support, for money and so on. Its meaning is context-dependent.'
Bonobos, which live in one part of Africa and are the world's most human-like apes, use almost identical facial and vocal signs to chimps, but not the same manual gestures, the scientists found.
http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=47338&in_page_id=34
An example of typical English humour?
