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From what I remember reading about the great apes' possibiity of speaking, they couldn't speak even if they had the proper brain-wiring. The reason lies in the area of the esophegus(sp?). There is a bone or some process that doesn't move as the ape grows older. The same thing is true of human babies, except that the bone or whatever does move up or down, I've forgotten which. It moves at a very young age, thus babies can begin picking up language at a very early age.

Is there a doctor/anatomist/anthropologist out there who can either say I'm right or wrong?

Gorillas and Chimps have been taught to communicate in sign language but there's no certainty over whether they actually can develop a language as opposed to micmicking what they're taught by their signers.

[...]However, within the last decade, scientists excavating an archaeological site in Israel, the Kebara Cave, have dug up and analyzed one tiny bone that, they believe, may single-handedly disprove the traditional theory that only modern humans could talk.

The structure in question is the hyoid, a horseshoe-shaped bone resting freely in the throat, attached indirectly to the larynx, tongue, and base of the skull by ligaments and muscles. The hyoid is very fragile, and thus rarely found preserved as a fossil, even within relatively recent human remains. Despite decades of excavation at Kebara by researchers from Israel, France, and the United States, "It was a total fluke that this one was found in such excellent condition," according to Lyn Schepartz, a member of the excavation team and a professor of anthropology at the University of Cincinnati. This fossil, dated at 60,000 years old, represents the earliest complete hyoid in the fossil record anywhere in the world. The tiny hyoid may have huge implications for demonstrating the capacity for speech in fossil hominids. It is attached to the muscles controlling the tongue, and its delicate movement within the throat helps control the formulation of speech.[...]

http://www.fonz.org/zoogoer/zg1995/firstwords.htm