It works very well with non-deaf Mediterraneans.
I gather it doesn't necessarily make the spoken-to understand any better (unless threatening gestures are involved), but it certainly helps the speakers feel they've put their point across well.
"Ronald Raygun" wrote
Do they all know British Sign Language? ;-)
"Ronald Raygun" wrote
Hmmm. You said you'd wave your arms at them, "so that they understand you better".
In what way do they "understand you better", if "it doesn't ... make the spoken-to understand any better"?
By making the speaker feel he's put his point across well, i.e. *think* the spoken-to has understood better. It just makes them feel more comfortable. I don't know why the French, Spanish, and Italians gesticulate so wildly, but they do.
All this arm-waving was just metaphorical, you understand. People often prefer to speak to someone face to face than over the telephone, even just for some armless banter.
yes but its hardly a common request
FWIW, they don't "gesticulate wildly", the hand movements and facial gestures convey meaning. As for why provincial people around the Mediterranean do this, it's much the same as the reasons that Lancashire people used to "mee-maw" while talking. To get across meaning when the environment is noisy, or when people are so far apart that hearing is difficult. Then it gets to be a habit so one does it all the time.
I discounted it as a means of or aid to communication when I first arrived in Italy, but now as farmer I find myself joining in, because when one is trying to talk to a farmhand over tractor engine noise, or even when he's a few hundred yards down the field, handwaving is damn useful. As it is in the restaurant and bar so crowded with people talking 20 to the dozen that you need to clarify the point.
People also use hand gestures so that others from outside the area don't follow their meaning. Hence we can say one thing, but emphasise that we mean this ironically or not at all. And the old men like to lech after pretty girls without being so crass as to all exclaim "phwoar look at the bristols on that."
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