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Cat-owners will recognize many of the
cat-sounds listed, although we may refer to them
in more anthropomorphic terms: greet, grumble,
nag, whimper, swear, sing etc. Some cats add their
own idiosyncratic words to this general vocabulary
such as the sudden exhalation of air used by my
own cat, Aphrodite.
This word, which we call
"foof" or "frooff" can be
anything from an exclamation ("Oh!" and
"Well"), a comment ("So?" and
"Huh?"), a non-committal response when
we speak to her ("Hmmm"), or a noise to
be used when she feels she needs to say something,
but can't think of anything meaningful to say
(small-talk and self-satisfied murmuring). It all
depends on HOW it is said. For Aphrodite, "froof"
is the all-purpose "supercalifragilistic..."
of cat vocabulary. Scrapper used "mrrrp"
in the same way.
Learning
the Lingo
Kittens learn a great deal from imitating their
mother, and cats retain the ability to learn and
adapt into their adult life. They soon discover
that humans use sounds in order to communicate and
most cats react to this by developing different
sounds for certain circumstances.
A plaintive
miaow is best suited to achieving a goal such as
extra grub or an open door while a friendly
chirrup elicits a favorable response when the cat
greets its owner. Many of these noises are
accompanied by exaggerated actions as the cat
"acts out" its communication - by
running back and forth between owner and closed
door or by licking invisible crumbs from an
obviously empty food dish.
Humans have an innate
language instinct and a need to communicate
vocally (or through sign language etc) with
everyone about them. Adults with small children
use a simplified version of language known as
baby-talk (called "motherese" by some
linguists) where certain words and syllables are
greatly stressed and frequently repeated. These
efforts are rewarded when baby makes noises back
and parents readily identify meaningful noises
("mum-mum") in their babies when the
rest of us hear only random babble. In response,
parents talk even more to their offspring.
Whether or not we consider our cats to be
surrogate children, we tend to relate to them in a
similar way, using motherese to communicate with
them. Cats may respond to this verbal barrage by
making noises of their own.
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