Talking dogs and cats

[weary flake]

From the Bulwer-Lytton novel A Strange Story:

"Dupont de Nemours has discovered that dogs talk
in vowels, using two consonants, G, Z, when they are
angry. He asserts that cats employ the same vowels as
dogs; but their language is more affluent in consonants,
including M, N, B, R, V, F."

[DT]

Post by weary flake
"Dupont de Nemours has discovered that dogs talk
in vowels, using two consonants, G, Z, when they are
angry.

I thought it was G and R. Grrrrrr...

[Charles Wm. Dimmick]

Post by DT

Post by weary flake
"Dupont de Nemours has discovered that dogs talk
in vowels, using two consonants, G, Z, when they are
angry.

I thought it was G and R. Grrrrrr...

In dog language, the rrrr is a vowel sound.

[Charles Wm. Dimmick]

Post by weary flake
"Dupont de Nemours has discovered that dogs talk
in vowels, using two consonants, G, Z, when they are
angry. He asserts that cats employ the same vowels as
dogs; but their language is more affluent in consonants,
including M, N, B, R, V, F."

That meshes with my experience, as far as cat language goes. I once had
a cat who had a 9-word vocabulary, maybe more, but I only understood 9
of them. Distinct words for "feed me", "I want out", "I am about to jump
up on your lap", "there is someone or something outside", "play with
me", "there is something wrong that you need to take care of", "I've
caught a [mouse, bird, other creature]", "leave me alone", and "look at
me, ain't I cute?".

Charles

[Greg Goss]

Post by Charles Wm. Dimmick
That meshes with my experience, as far as cat language goes. I once had
a cat who had a 9-word vocabulary, maybe more, but I only understood 9
of them. Distinct words for "feed me", "I want out", "I am about to jump
up on your lap", "there is someone or something outside", "play with
me", "there is something wrong that you need to take care of", "I've
caught a [mouse, bird, other creature]", "leave me alone", and "look at
me, ain't I cute?".

Neither of my cats that I've had as an adult were particularly bright.

I've mentioned CJ's obsession with picking fights with cats several
times her size that were trying to play nice. She never expressed
anything in particular vocally, and wasn't much good at other
signalling. She was perhaps adequate at using her paws or claws to
manipulate things. She was completely bored with laser pointer play,
looking at me with a "why are you wiggling it like that" look.

My cat in the eighties was pretty good at comprehending and paying
attention to perhaps eight or ten commands. She was perhaps adequate
at manipulating, but unfortunately worse than a neighbor cat that was
pretty stubborn about wanting to spend winter indoors. Any complexity
I added to the cat doors, was learned by the interloper faster than by
my cat.

My cat when I was a child was genius at manipulating (such as opening
doorknobs). I don't remember anything about vocalizations or about
understanding human speech.

One of Wendy's cats vocalized a lot, but I never learned to understand
any of it, other than checking the food and litterbox when she came
specifically to me and expressed something. I recognized the
vocalizations from her sister (visually completely unrelated-looking,
but exactly the same vocality) when I was babysitting for Wendy's
older sister (visually completely unrelated-looking, not even speaking
the same.)

The other of Wendy's cats didn't much get along with me. I don't
remember her ability with English.