this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Something I once read is that different cats don't seem to use exactly the same noise to mean the same thing, ie, one cat might use a certain sort of meow to show that it is hungry, but another cat might use a similar meow to show that they want attention. Further, that wild cats usually stop making many such noises after they grow up, but domestic ones keep using them to communicate with people. If this is true, then the cat noises don't really represent a cat language as such since each individual cat would have it's own different set of vocabulary it develops in an attempt to get humans to understand it, being forced to resort to being all dramatic and acting like a kitten to get their message across because humans are sometimes too clueless to understand their body language.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

This is true, and it's absolutely fascinating, because it's literally the birth of a tiny language every time. The cat makes noise and notices that the human does something it wants, which makes the cat associate the noise with the action. The human hears the noise repeatedly and notices that the cat is happy about what they are doing, so they associate the noise with the action. It's a shared language between two individuals, which is just so precious!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Your explanation is so precious!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

OP doesn't know what the word "jargon" means.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah, nonsense would've been a better word. Or word salad, it doesn't get said enough.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I think you were looking for "gibberish."

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Or they’ve only heard jargon from outside their expertise.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I mean. Is the word “jargon” jargon for people who are into linguistics?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Fun video from a while ago about the cat's meow ;) https://youtu.be/qeUM1WDoOGY

And when our cats meow, there's one thing almost every owner in the study said they did: talk back.

Honestly so adorable.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

How rude would it be if I came home and ignored my cats greeting!?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Wait.. you guys can't understand your cats?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

I read a headline on the internet once (in other words: What I'm about to say is almost certainly bullshit) that cat owners can understand THEIR OWN cats.

Anecdotally as a cat owner, it seems we train each other, cat makes a noise to get attention, human gives a kind of attention when hearing that noise, cat starts making that noise to get that specific attention. My cat has a food meow, an attention meow, a bath water meow (my cat likes to drink from the tub faucet) and a "it's 3 AM and my brain can't handle it" meow, and I can definitely tell them apart. There's also a difference between the "enjoying a shoulder rub" purr and the "make me breakfast make me breakfast make me breakfast make me breakfast" purr. Hand me a different cat and that cat speaks mandarin Swahili.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Cats just meow to get our attention. Fun fact do you know that meowing is them mimicking the sounds of a baby?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Not a human baby (how could they, most cats have never seen a human baby), but as a kitten they meow to their parents to get food etc. So we're their parents now and I guess they never really grew up and became independent.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Cats meow in the same register that human babies cry. They aren't saying that cats are specifically trying to cry like a human baby, but that cats as a species have grown over thousands of years to meow in the same pitches as human babies.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

Well adult cats raised around humans figure out what meows work the best and that is one that sounds like baby

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago

No its not. You were mislead.