The Language of Cats

[SoDesuKa]

Otis comes in from the kitchen with a tone that's half greeting, half inquiry. He jumps from the side table to the desk, appraises the situation, then makes a remark the the effect of Well, good. Everything is as expected. I've gotten so used to his routine that I was surprised when I realized how much a cat can communicate with rising and falling inflections.

Then it occurred to me. Do cats have the same language all over the world? In other words, do Chinese cats speak a sort of Chinese? After all, that's a tonal language, too. Maybe cats in Beijing express themselves with completely different inflections ... those that make sense in China.

Anybody know? Have you traveled to distant lands and made the acquaintance of a local cat? I once met a male cat in Cairo, but I can't say whether there was anything uniquely Egyptian about him. Japanese cats are taken for walks on a leash. That would never happen here.

[Droopy]

1. RE: Cats on a leash

My condo community requires cats to be on a leash and supervised if they are outdoors. People just let them come and go, though. There are four of them I see around here all the time running loose. I've seen an American cat attack a guy who had it on a leash. But I think if you were to train a cat from the time it was a kitten to be on a leash, it might be alright.

[datasuspect]

2. cats cannot speak

their owners can think wishfully though in nonsensical attempts to anthropomorphize their housepets

[Tuesday Afternoon]

8. can too

:D

[datasuspect]

20. cannot

so there.

[Arugula Latte]

25. They can too. They have very specific meanings with their vocalizations.

I have lived with probably about 16 or 17 cats over the years, all told. They have very different noises for various expressions of hunger, anger, happiness, fear, affection, "kitten calling," playing requests, inquiry, etc. etc.

[Orsino]

10. They speak, all right...

...but we owners are often eager to assume that their sounds that happen to mimic ours mean the same things. I think that those rising inflections are queries of some sort, but I can't be sure. Cat language is cat-centric, and may not have room for all the emotions we like to believe they experience.

[SoDesuKa]

15. Feline Emotions

We can't know for sure what cats mean, but we certainly can recognize some of their expressions. When a cat is annoyed, it's not difficult to know what an annoyed sound is. When they're pleased, they purr. When they're actually angry, you can tell that too. And woe unto you if you accidentally step on the cat's tail! They'll let you know.

[montanto]

12. Speak? No. Communicate?

Yes.

[radfringe]

18. then come to my house

and listen to our 22yr old Snowshoe, Kudra

her vocabulary includes:

"hello": when she comes into the bedroom

"uh-oh": when someone drops something on the floor

"out": in a crate on the way to the vet

"now": when she wants to be fed

"home": in a crate on the way home from the vet

"no": when she see's the crate for a vet visit, or when you are attempting to give her meds

[datasuspect]

19. the human mind is plainly a pattern recognizing machine

we'll impute human characteristics to practically anything, especially when we emote.

[radfringe]

21. ;)

[Gormy Cuss]

22. My cat just read your post and said

Meowhat meowan Meowasshole.

[LeftyMom]

3. My mother had a cat trained to walk on a leash.

They'll do it quite readily if you start them on it from kittenhood. :shrug:

[Skittles]

16. not always

I put Clancy on a leash at six weeks old and he promptly flopped down and looked up at me like, WTF????? This is NOT happening. :o

[NashVegas]

4. "Help, I Got Stuck In the Dresser Drawer" Is Pretty Universal

Low pitched and bummin'

[Roon]

5. Well, they communicate with different pitches of meows

but most cats at LEAST know their name. Barney knows Morrison's name as well as his own. When I start talking to Morrison, Barney will join us because he gets jealous.
They're cuddle buddies!

[WolverineDG]

7. I had a cat that would do that too

jealous little wench she was. ;)

dg

[WolverineDG]

6. They can communicate just differently than humans

I see this post has already drawn the obligatory "you're an idiot for thinking your cats can talk" response. :eyes:

Anyway, I think cats (and dogs) can communicate with their humans. Because we're around them a lot, we can pick up on their cues more readily than other people (like parents can tell if the baby needs changing or is hungry just by the sound of their crying). There is a definite difference between my dogs' "hello" & "danger danger" barks, for example, and my cats have different meows for "feed me dammit" & "let's cuddle." And then there's that whole ears/eyes/tail thing that they also communicate with.

dg

[graywarrior]

9. I'm living with four cats right now

Every one of them talks....all at once....I've gone mad.

[SoDesuKa]

14. Four Cats

It's not so bad when they talk among themselves, but when they're talking about you right in front of you that you know you've lost their respect. Short of that, let them blather. Just say to yourself, They're just cats, that's all.

[Skittles]

17. could be they are yakking about that fucking duck on the wall

YA THINK???

[jumptheshadow]

11. I swear I know a cat "cuss" word

It's the word "Meh," spoken loudly and sharply.

I had a couple of cats use it when they were really annoyed.

I used it once with one of my cats. She looked shocked. ;-)

[SoDesuKa]

13. Cat Cuss Word

It must be a regional dialect. Gracie looked confused when I said it to her, so I repeated it. No response. Then again, Gracie's the sort that won't let you know when you've scored a direct hit. She prefers to keep me guessing. One of these days I'm going to catch her off balance and I'll say it again.

[charlie and algernon]

24. haha, "Meh" is definitely used by my cat when I annoy her

She also has a "Feed Me" meow and whiny meow when she wants to be put back down as well as tons of others I haven't figured out yet.

[Arugula Latte]

23. Cats' language is far, far more varied than dogs.'

And that is yet one more reason why cats rule and dogs drool. :P

[Kashka-Kat]

26. Whatya mean cats can't talk- what do you call it then when you & your cat

go back and forth meowing at each other – literally 10 or 20 times back and forth. She says Mraow. I say Mraow. She says Mraaa? I say Mraaa? She says Mraaaawww. I say Mraaawww. And so on, for 5 or 10 minutes at a time. What is that, if not a conversation? Now, what it means exactly I'm not entirely sure!

There must be regional dialects. Here “meh” is a happy word, sort of related to the purr-grunt. It’s the long extended Mrrrrraoiarrrrrrrrghhhh you have to watch out for. That tells you youre REALLY in trouble.

My current cat is by far the most vocal I’ve ever had, a part-Siamese (I think) calico. She comments on every little thing – Like, ooh! There was a noise outside! What’s that?

At first it drove me absolutely crazy. Now I can’t believe I’m actually thinking (since this one is getting up in years) my next one has got to be a Siamese or something equally vocal. I can’t imagine life without a talker

"The Tribe of Tiger" is a really interesting book about cat culture, how its evolved in different places/situations

[KamaAina]

27. An older word for cat in Hawaiian is 'oau

which, in (human) Hawaiian, could also mean "I am"!