13 Comments
User's avatar
Martha Bright Anandakrishnan's avatar

Oh yes. From Facebook cat groups my husband and I have incorporated all sorts of ridiculous usages and spellings. Two of our cats are “oramge” and one chews on “plamstic” and they have “blamkies” (blankets). We refer to our male cats as “himb” and females as “hermb.” I would love to see a linguist break down the substitution of the m sound for the n. I don’t do Facebook anymore but yeah, we still talk this way!

Meow Factor by Edith's avatar

That sounds like Hambspeak to me - the mb and the m. Phonetically m and n are similar as they are both voiced nasal consonants. And m can substitute n in words like input. Cats just use it more 😁

I use a lot of meowlogisms when I talk/write about cats. I came across this on Instagram.

Whiskered Purrspective's avatar

It’s totally purrfect that CAT is the acronym for cat speak! Language is definitely such a fascinating part of our sense of belonging. Servants of the feline overlords definitely share a unique bond for sure.

Pamela Cummins's avatar

I often use double words when I talk to my kitties. For example, slow down eating your food or you're going to pukey, wukey.

Whiskered Purrspective's avatar

OMG I do this too! Always say things to my kitties in repeat. So funny!

Pamela Cummins's avatar

Glad that I’m not the only one 😹

Meow Factor by Edith's avatar

pukey wukey is so sweet (the expression not the actual thing :)). 😻

Pamela Cummins's avatar

Purr, Purr

JHong's avatar

I saw a video recently that said people who change their tone/pitch/words for cats are generally more empathetic people.

My mom was convinced our family cat understood Taiwanese. 🤷🏻‍♀️

But yes I have a language solely for cats which usually involves me impersonating what I think they’d say in English at any given moment 😂

Meow Factor by Edith's avatar

So there: code cat 🐈‍⬛

The Strategic Linguist's avatar

How lucky that cat speak requires CAT?!

Meow Factor by Edith's avatar

Really lucky. Coincidence? I am not so sure because cats rule everything