The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1895-12-05
POWER OF SPEECH OF THE CAT.
Argument In Favor of the Theory That
Felines Can Converse

Theories of articulate language in
the animal kingdom are advanced
every day. Some of them are seri-
Gus, like Professor Garner S notion
of an intelligent and Ineligible
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 one is the theory of a
feline tongue, exploited by the blind
author, Marvin Clark, in his little
book on PUSSY and Her Language.
He declares that the smooth and
liquid passages in our poets which
express onomatopoeia 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
lifiuous 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 II, says writ
er in the Buffalo Commercial, are
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;
DO, head; pro, nail or claw; tut, limb;
papoo, body; oolie, fur; mi-ouw, be.
ware; burrieu, satisfaction or con.
tent; yiaou, determination; mi
youw, here.
Of primitive words it is believed
there are not more thaE 600 in the
cat tongue, and many of these are
obscure, for the cat relies greatly
upon signs for making it's meaning
clear to those who have neglected
study of its articulate speech. Thus
the last word in the foregoing list is
used by q 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 we'll understood by kittens
as when uttered in a sharp tone and
repeated number of times, more as
an explosive than otherwise, for it
is warning of danger and 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-
lieves that the word thus uttered
signifies both defiance and curse
land 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 rea-
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 certain-the
means for carrying on investigation
in the interesting field of feline Ian
guage are available in almost every
household, and to obtain the desired
conversations from which volumi-
nous treatise upon it can be written
it is not necessary to go to Africa
and remain for six months shut up
in cage in the heart of the forest.