Morris tribune., 1884-06-11
TIE LANGUAGE OF CATS.
Though Limited as to Words 1t is
COpious In Expression.

Though Limited as to Words 1t is
COpiouS In Expression.
New York Times
A little learning is a particularly danger
Gus thing in connection with comparative
philology. This was illustrated the other
day by an article in The London News on the
language Of cats In that article it was as
serted that 'the cat has u speech in which all
the vOwels of the dog are found, with six
eonsonants into the bargain-these being III,
u, g, b, Y, and f." This assertion, made as it
is of cats generally, is absurily untrue tits
true, in part of the tortoise-shell dialect-a
dialect which is confined to perhaps one
ninth Of the entire cat fanily-but even the
tortoise-shell cat does not make use of IT."
and it is doubtful if the tortoise-shell dialect,
except in regions where it is seriously cor
rupted by the brindle patois, the vowel gu"
exists.
The purest Of all cat dialects is the black
cat dialect which bears to other cat dialects
the Same relation that Tuscan bears to the
provincial dialects Of Italy. There is prac-
tically only one dog language, and although
some differences of pronunciation dis
tinguish the speech Of Scotch terriers from
that of Newfoundland dogs, these differences
cannot be regarded as dialects. Now, the
dog does not make use of "e," and in
asmuch as all cats except the tortoise-shell
variety make use of all the vowels, it is er-
roneous to say that the speech Of the cat has
call the vowels of the dog" The vowel re, u
which no dog can pronounce, is the most
prominent vowel in the feline word "meow'
pronounced "mow" in tortoise-shell. The
writer in The London News may be conf
IDENTIFY challenged to produce a single dog
capable of being taught to say meow"
Cats use the six consonants above men
toned, but they also use others. The word
"pzzmeaow," meaning Here am" certainly
contains the consonants "p" and a." even if
we class the final 'w" as a vowel sound.
Again, the consonant IS" appears in the
familiar expression "sha," which is used by
all cats in moments of excitement, but which
is too profane to be translated in these col
umns "Meaowl," meaning "Let me ill.," is
not to be COMPOUNDED with "meow," the sec
ond person plural of the verb meaning ITO
give dinner" and it Enthusiastically contains
the letter a." The word "ek, which is usually
pronounced so indistinctly as to be frequently
misunderstood, and means, Il am ex-
hausted with the heat" contains ok" Thus
we see that the consonants f, 6, h, k, ], IN, n,
d, 2, and all exist in the best cat dialect, and
in no dialect except that of the tortoise-shell
cats is any one of these consonants wanting.
The writer in The News has evidently no &C.
uuaintances with any cat dialect, and has
probably based his assertions upon those OF
some extremely superficial scholar.
Want of space forbids the further consid-
Grafton of this important and interesting sub
ject. 1t may, however, be added that Prof.
Wilder, who has recently made a profound
study of the curious tortoise-shell dialect, has
found in it many resemblances to the Basque,
and is inclined to regard it, not as a dialect,
but as distinct language, in no way related
to the great Woodsheddo-B ackfencian fam
lily of cat languages.