A Conversation for Talking With Cats

...calling cats, onomatopoeic words for 'cat', other cat contributions to the language...

Post 1

ITIWBS

The first call for cats I learned, is the traditional and ever popular, "He - re, kitty, kitty, kitty!" which my grandmother used to use to call the cats, especially when she had some tasty kitchen leftovers for them.

I later expanded on that, going to, "He - re, kitty, kitty, kitty, puss, puss, puss, puss, fi - ishh!".

And, by the time I finished, there they all would be, assembled and ready for dinner.

These days, I simply chirrup like a bird, which has the advantage it gets the attention of even stranger cats one is not well acquainted with. Often, they'll give me a dirty look, disappointed I'd play a trick on them that way, so I try to make it worth their while.




Onomatopoeic usages, calling a thing after the sound it makes , are very popular for cats, around the world, from the Chinese "mao", after the cat's meow, to the English "cat", after the cat's spit, to the Swedish "puss" and the Egyptian "bas", after the cat's hiss.




The word "rat" is scarcely onomatopoeic, but can be considered a loan word, since it is a sound cats make when they encounter one, a short rolled 'r' plus the consonantal click, ending on an exhalation.


...calling cats, onomatopoeic words for 'cat', other cat contributions to the language...

Post 2

Gnomon - time to move on

We never had the word "kitty" for a cat when I was growing up. The first time I ever heard it was when I was about 18 and my cousin met and dated an American. I had a grand-aunt called "Kitty", and it certainly never occurred to me that she was anything to do with cats. We would always call cats "pussy", and call them with psh-wsh-wsh.


...calling cats, onomatopoeic words for 'cat', other cat contributions to the language...

Post 3

ITIWBS

...'kitty' as a diminutive of "kitten", in wild west dialect that runs strongly to diminutives as indications of affection, friendliness, or familiarity...


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...calling cats, onomatopoeic words for 'cat', other cat contributions to the language...

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