The Secret Language Of Cats. Susanne Schötz

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СКАЧАТЬ breath is forced rapidly through the slightly open mouth before stopping suddenly: [fːhː], [çː], [ʃː] or [ʂː]. Spitting is more explosive, sometimes with a k- or t-like sound at the beginning of the sound: i.e. [͡ʈʂː], [k͡ h͜͜͜ ː] or [k͡ ʃː], and sometimes a little saliva is even expectorated.

       c. The Snarl (Scream, Cry, Pain Shriek): A very loud, harsh and often high-pitched sound produced just before or during active fighting, often with [a], [æ], [au] or [ɛʊ] vowel qualities. A snarl is sometimes used as a final warning, but injured or sick cats may cry when they are in pain.

       d. The Chirp and The Chatter (Prey-Directed Sounds): Sounds that are sometimes produced around prey (birds, rodents, insects). A hunting instinct where the cat attempts to imitate the calls of the prey or the killing bite, for example when a bird or an insect catches the attention of the cat. There seem to be several subcategories based on their phonetic characteristics.

       i. The Chatter (Cackle, Teeth Chattering): A voiceless, very rapid, stuttering or clicking sequence of sounds produced with the jaws juddering, which produce a crackling k-consonant: [k̟ ⁼ k̟ ⁼ k̟ ⁼ k̟ ⁼ k̟ ⁼ k̟ ⁼ ] or [k k k k k k].

       ii. The Chirp: A voiced, short call, said to be mimicking the chirp of a bird or rodent. The pitch is often monotone or falls toward the end: [ʔə]. It is generally repeated in sequences [ʔɛʔɛʔɛ]. Softer, weaker variants have also been observed like soft tweets without any clear initial [ʔ] and with varying vowel quality, for example [wi] or [ɦɛu]. There are also variations where a soft chirp or tweet is prolonged, so that it almost sounds like a tweedle or warble, and with rapid changes in the pitch or melody. These variations are often combined with tremor or quavering: for example [ʔəɛəɥə].

      Now, having already read my descriptions of the most important cat sounds, there is no point in reading any farther, or is there? Well, in the chapters ahead I would like to explain a little bit more about the most important cat sounds and above all else, I would like to discuss some of the situations or contexts where they typically occur.

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       CAT FOR BEGINNERS

      There are a whole lot of cats in the world—there are 95.6 million cats kept as pets in the United States, 10 million in Canada, 10 million in the United Kingdom, 3 million in Australia, and 1.5 million in New Zealand as of 2017 (McNamee 2017). Despite there being so many cats, many people cannot properly interpret the sounds their cats make. However, anyone who listens a little bit more carefully when cats “speak” to us will quickly understand that they are able to produce a great number of different sounds, and that it is not very hard at all to learn to interpret the different sounds. An example: although our cat Kompis prefers to spend his time in the garden, he likes to sleep in the house, especially when it is cold out. His favorite place is a big blanket-covered stool in front of the radiator in the hall. He often sleeps for hours, but when he wakes up and wants to go out we know right away because he uses sounds that lie in the range of frequencies to which we humans are especially receptive. “Meeaahh,” he says, in a very high-pitched and bright (with acoustically high resonances) voice. Even if we are upstairs, and very far away, we can still hear him. We also know that Kompis has a much deeper voice when he tries to scare off an intruding cat in the garden. On those occasions it sounds more like a low-pitched moouuoouu. How does he know that we understand him better when he uses his bright and high-pitched voice? Why does he change his voice when he interacts with other cats? Can cats learn how to best communicate with different species (and individuals)? Behavioral scientists and biologists have already learned a lot about how cats communicate. Can we phoneticians contribute anything to the understanding of feline communication? The differences between human speech and animal sounds are well-known. Discovering the similarities and building bridges for better understanding is especially interesting for me as a linguist.

      But first let us talk about the differences between the language of humans and the language of cats. So as to clarify the difference between them I first will discuss how cats communicate in general terms, and then turn to a detailed description of the range of cat sounds.

       CODES OF COMMUNICATION IN HUMANS AND ANIMALS

      We humans prefer verbal, that is to say spoken, communication. Although one often hears talk of the “language” of bees, apes, dolphins or whales, a great number of researchers have recognized that their communication cannot really be described as language. Many scientific investigations have confirmed that the vocal (acoustic) codes of all other species are not only simpler, they are also more limited compared to human speech. It is unlikely that future research will discover an animal species whose means of communicating deviates from this pattern. In addition, human language is open, meaning we can add a limitless number of new words with new meanings. Animals, in contrast, communicate about a very limited number of topics. They can discuss “here” and “now,” but usually not “yesterday,” “next week,” “over there” or “in Sweden.”

      When apes, cats or other animals communicate with sounds, a single sound usually corresponds to a single “word” with a specific message within certain contexts or situations (one that the hearer often interprets as a meaning). The words of human speech, in contrast, are composed of multiple small parts, like the consonants and vowels (phonemes), that contribute to the overall meaning. We can change the meaning by changing one of these parts, such as with cat and bat or house and mouse.

      Animal sounds depend on their context, and though they may be meaningful, they do not consist of smaller parts that themselves can change the meaning of the sound, such as the consonants and vowels of human speech. If a cat first says “mew” and then says “meow,” the two sounds do not necessarily mean different things. A communication code with thousands of different meaningful sounds needs, among other things, a very complex apparatus such as the human voice box with which to produce those sounds—something that simply does not exist in the animal kingdom. Or does it? The most recent research suggests that many animal species do have a kind of “languageness” that is not exactly like human language, but which is not necessarily simpler or less successful as a communicative code.

       HOW DO CATS COMMUNICATE?

      Cats and humans have lived together for more than ten thousand years. We domesticated them. But they probably domesticated us, too. They taught us how we should best behave around them (do not approach too quickly, do not handle too roughly, do not speak too loudly). We made it clear to them that we were happy to have them around, that we like to feed them and pet them, that they can expect warmth and protection from us, as long as they are just a little friendly to us and occasionally catch a mouse or two, so that our grain stores are not emptied by rodents.

      Although many cats are solitary animals who rarely seek the company of other cats, cats can live together in friendly groups. Additionally, most domesticated cats seem to like living with humans. In this sense, they are social creatures who communicate in a variety of different ways with each other as well as with us humans: through scent (olfactory), with body postures and movements (visual), through touching (tactile) and with sounds (acoustic).

      Humans, unfortunately, are not hound dogs; we are not especially sensitive to scent or the pheromones that cats can detect so easily. Moreover, our eyes are often occupied by watching our smartphones, computers, books, newspapers, magazines, televisions and so forth, so we might not notice that Kitty has been sitting next to her empty food bowl waiting for breakfast for more than half an hour. Perhaps that is why cats and humans have СКАЧАТЬ