The hand gestures that last longer than spoken languages

Emmanuel Lafont/BBCUsing hand gestures might feel like an intuitive way to communicate across language barriers, but their meaning can change, and there are few universal signs that everyone agrees on.Our hands are a useful tool for adding meaning to our speech. They might help us to recall words and shape our thoughts – they can even change the sounds our audience hears.Even people who have been blind from birth gesture as they speak, so you might be led to believe that there is something universally understood about the gestures we make – but that is not the case.The "thumbs up" might be a common way to show your appreciation on social media, but in some parts of Europe and the Middle East the gesture can be offensive. Just because a gesture is common, it is not necessarily universal, warns Lauren Gawne, a linguist at La Trobe University in Australia.And its meaning can change over time. News stories from 2003 reported that US troops travelling through Iraq were greeted by Iraqis wit...