Re: Animals' talk (jara: German letter names)

Cats:

1) Meow, 2) meaaaaaaaaaw, 3) ow, 4) mrrr, 5) mrrrp? 6) prrrrh prrrrh prrrrh
prrrrh prrrrh,
7) myehmyehmyehmyehmyehmyeh!
8) YOWWW!  9) rrrrrrrrrrrrrrruirrr!   10)  haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!  11) pft!
12) !

1) The normal meow.  Acknowledging your existence.
2)  The extended meow.  Asking for something, often while sitting in front
of the place where the something
    can be withdrawn, taken out, set down, etc.
3)  The clipped meow, without the initial labial--very common and
affectionate; akin to (12).
4)  The sleepy utterance, usually a relaxed response to something you say.
Often means "thank you," such
    as when you open a door.
5)  The mother cat's call to her kittens, and often the cat mistress's call
to her human.
    I forgot mew!  A kitten's call.
6)  Expresses content with an action you are doing.  It means "don't stop."
Sometimes used when the cat
    is sick, though.
7)  An expression of excitement where the chin actually flutters--especially
when a juicy bird is seen in the birdfeeder
    under the window.
8) An expression of pain and outrage, such as when you step on the cat's
tail.
9) A drawn-out expression of rage and menace, deepening in pitch.
10)  Definitely an expression of hatred, meant to drive the point home if
you don't get the meaning of (9).
11) An expression of disapproval, often accompanied by the cat's getting up
and walking away.
12)  No sound at all--called "the silent meow": the cat's mouth opens, but
you don't hear anything.  VERY
        affectionate and intimate.

Sally
scaves@frontiernet.net
Niffodyr tweluenrem lis teuim an
"The gods have retractible claws."
                        From the Gospel of Bastet
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/whatsteo.html
http://www.frontiernet.net/~awen/bastrelay2.html




----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim May" <butsuri@...>

> Cats can mew, as well as meowing.  Both can serve as either a verb or
> a sound, although "mew" is more likely to be a verb.  Cats can also
> yowl, although this is is a different sound, and not restricted to
> cats.
>
> To extend this a little beyond the English , I have here an article by
> T.R. Reid from the 1992 edition of _International Wildlife_ (from my
> archives) which includes a number of the sounds attributed to animals
> in Japanese.
>
> |When Asian animals do speak, they are puported to have different
> |sounds than their Western cousins.  Japanese dogs bark "wahn-wahn",
> |lambs go "may, may" and mice "chu-chu".  On the other hand, a Japanese
> |cat's "neeyah, neeyah" sounds a lot like an English-speaker's "meow."
> |The Japanese word for the way a rooster greets the dawn -
> |"koh-ke-kohkoh, koh-ke-kohkoh" - sounds more like the real thing than
> |"cockle-doodle-doo" ever did.
>
> (The spelling appears to be based on what will be understood as
> phonetic by an English speaker, rather than on any standard
> romanization of Japanese, and there is not a lot of data, but I
> include this as it was this article which first introduced me to the
> idea that the words for animal sounds varied with language.)
>
> A google search reveals the following page, which has some more
> information on Japanese animal sounds.
>
> http://www.thejapanesepage.com/animal.htm
>

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