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Lewis Carroll, it seems, was not a keen
observer of cats, otherwise he would have noticed
that cats do not always say the same thing! They
make a variety of different sounds which, among
humans would be called "words", but in
our belief that we are naturally superior to
"dumb" animals, we don't call cat-sounds
"words". Since the sounds don't conform
to our notion of grammatical structure, it simply
appears that cats lack language.
To the uninitiated, and probably to Lewis
Carroll, the simple "miaow" is an
all-purpose word. Most cat-owners, however, are
aware that there are a whole variety of miaows
that differ in pitch, rhythm, volume, tone and
pronunciation. Jean Craighead George attempted to categorize
these according to the cat's age, gender and
situation:-
 Kittens
 Mew (high pitched and thin) - a polite plea
for help
MEW! (loud and frantic) - an urgent plea for
help
Adult cats:
mew - plea for attention
mew (soundless) - a very polite plea for
attention (this is Paul Gallico's "Silent
Miaow" which is probably a sound pitched
too high for human ears)
meow - emphatic plea for attention
MEOW! - a command!
mee-o-ow (with falling cadence) - protest or
whine
MEE-o-ow (shrill whine) - stronger protest
MYUP! (short, sharp, single note) - righteous
indignation
MEOW! Meow! (repeated) - panicky call for help
mier-r-r-ow (chirrup with liting cadence) -
friendly greeting
Tomcats:
RR-YOWWW-EEOW-RR-YOW-OR
- caterwaul
merrow - challenge
to another male
meriow - courting
call to female
Mother cats:
MEE-OW - come and get it!
meOW - follow me!
ME R-R-R-ROW - take cover!
mer ROW! - No! or Stop It!
mreeeep (burbled) - hello greeting to kittens
and disarming greeting to adult cats (also used
between adult cats and humans)
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