Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1895-12-11
POWER OF SPEECH oz THE CAT.
Argument In Favor of the Theory I'm
 TclinrS Can Converse

k Argument In Favor of the Theory That
 Folines Can Converse.
 Theories of artiCulate language in the animal kingdom are advanced every day. Some of them are seri- ous, like Professor Gamers notion of an intelligent and intelligible speech of apes, but the most inter esting are those which treat of the matter in half humorous way which does not tax the credulity too far. Such a one Is the theory of a feline tongue, exploited by tho blind author, Marvin Clark, in his little book op Pussy and Her Language. " He declares that the smooth and liquid passages in our poets which express onomatopueia are but echoes from that most beautiful of all Ian guages, that of the cat. '"
 The one most like it among human tongues, he says, is the Chinese, the sounds in each being musical, mel lifuous and pleasing to the senses. As in the Chinese, too, words in the cats language have various mean ings, according to the infections of the voice. The number of words is very great, but the author has made up no complete lexicon of them as yet. The following r., says a wit CT in the Buffalo Commercialzs e the most important and frequent in the conversation which cats struggle to carry on with members of the household: Aelio means food; lac, milk; parriere, open; aliloo. water bl, meat; ptlee-bl, mouse meat; !; bleeme- be, cooked meat; pad, foot; bo, head pro, nail or claw; tut, limb; pspoo. body; oolie, fur; mi-ouw, be- ware; burrieu, satisfaction or con- tent; yiaou, extermination; mi youw, here.
 Of primitive words it is believed there are not moro thaz 600 in the cat tongue, and many of these are obscure, for the cat relies greatly upon signs for making its meaning clear to those who have neglected a study of its artioulate speech. Thus the last word in the foregoing list is used by matronly cat in calling her family together, and she will continue to use it while caressing them.
 But the meaning of the word is never so well understood by kittens as when uttered in a sharp tone and repeated number of times, more as an explosive than otherwise, for it is a warning of danger and a call for instant action from the mother cat, who is imperious in her demands for obedience. '"
 Then there is the word 'mi-youw, " which is varied to "wow- teiouw- yow-tiow, wow-you-ts-s-syow, end ing in an explosion. The author be- fieves that the word thus uttered signifies both defiance and a curse "and comes so near to bold, bad swearing" that he refrains from giving the English for it.
 There may be skeptical persons who will ridicule this theory, but we should say that it was just as req sonable as Professor Gamers, while the language of the cat sounds far more artiCulate and significant of de- sign than the squeaky vocabulary which he brought home from goril- la land One thing is oertain-the means for carrying on investigation in the interesting field of feline lan- guage arc available in almost every household, and to obtain the desired conversations from which a volumi- nous treatise upon it can be written it Is not necessary to go to Africa and remain for six months shut up in a cage in the heart of the forest