[reuben_tate]

Originally Posted by Silvuh

Just a little off-topic side note: apes don't learn sign language. I read about it in a book I rented from the library a while ago (so I don't have it to copy the passage from). It talked about a lot of experiments and how researchers would note whenever an ape made a sign, and they made long lists of signs... but these researchers didn't know ASL. When a deaf person watched the apes, they noted no signs at all. Sign languages are as linguistically deep as spoken languages, so pointing to yourself to mean "me" or to an object to mean "that" isn't really signing.

I apologize for making such a harsh (and untrue) example to support my point. I'm hoping that I didn't personally offend anyone.