Auditory Communication Methods
"Meow" redirects here. For other uses, see Meow (disambiguation).Cats vocalize with purrs, growls, hisses, and meows. Meows are one of the most widely known cat sounds. In nature, the meow is a sound used by a cat to signal a request to its mother. Adult cats do not meow to each other, and so the meowing to human beings that domesticated cats exhibit is likely partly an extension of the use by kittens of this plaintive meow signal.
The word "meow" is onomatopoeic. Different languages have correspondingly different words for the "nyan" sound, including miau (Belarusian, Dutch, Finnish, Lithuanian, German, Polish, Russian, Portuguese, Romanian, Malay and Spanish), niau (Ukrainian), niaou (νιάου, Greek), miaou (French), nya (ニャ, Japanese), miao (喵, Mandarin Chinese, Italian), miav/miao or mjav/mjau (Danish and Norwegian), mjá (Icelandic), ya-ong (야옹, Korean) and meo-meo (Vietnamese).
In a recent study, Dr Susanne Schötz of Lund University Sweden, provides an acoustic analysis of a number of felid vocalizations, including chatters, miaows, murmurs and combinations of these sounds.
Most cats meow, hiss, or growl when angered or feeling threatened, which serves as a warning to the offending party. If the warning is not heeded, a more violent attack may follow. Some may engage in behavior or poking with their paws, with claws either extended or retracted. Cats sometimes make chirping or chattering noises when observing prey.
A "caterwaul" is the cry of a cat in estrus (or "in heat").
Read more about this topic: Cat Communication
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