Speak softly and carry some sharp claws?

I've seen a bit of trivia more than once that compares (domestic) cat vocalizations to dog vocalizations, with the cat having up to 10 times as many as the dog.

I bet the person who came up with this tidbit never owned a husky!

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I bet the person who came up with this tidbit never owned a husky!

Him right.  Me Bunker talk good.

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Kristina L. wrote : SW, I'm also curious about the language of the kats.  I read a newspaper article about cats which said that domestic cats don't have a universal spoken language, that each cat has its own.    I'm not sure I believe that.  When I got a kitten 2 years ago, I don't remember having to learn what she meant, yet I can usually understand my cats' meanings, verbal or body language.  At least the basics.

The answer to this question has the potential to be a long one from me, since this "issue" of language/communication is of particular interest to me.  In order to answer it, I'm going to ask that you stretch your mind a little bit

Ask yourself for a moment...what is language?

I've asked that of a number of humans, and have usually gotten the same curious response.  "Well, y'know, like English, or Spanish, or French."  Some of the more astute might caveat their words with something along the lines of how it's not just the title given, because even English has many dialects and colloquialisms that are all considered part of the same language.  A select few go so far as to make it a cultural affair, involving all those other people around us and how we talk.  No one seems to have a grasp of 'the obvious answer:'

'Language' is an advanced way of helping living organisms codify their interaction.  

I could develop this idea further giving you the classic example of a volcano versus a plant versus a person, but that's not really what you've asked

Regarding the lack of a "universal language in kats", taking into account the "obvious answer" of interaction--this becomes plausible.  It is akin to people using the same "words" and coming to different "results".  The spanish language is notorious for having words that may be commonly said in one dialect and profanity in another.

If you pare back language and communication to first principles, you are left with a 'lock and key' mechanism where some "tangible" output from one creature is "perceived" by some other creature and produces a response.  The narrow human view tends to limit this to words, but acknowledges body language.  Only a few integrate the two (and act like it's the 'big secret'), and fewer still incorporate senses other than sight and sound.  Taken altogether, communication becomes as complex as our senses are acute and our minds open to it.

It has been theorized that humans have a "language center" that remains open until a certain age at which point it becomes harder and harder to learn languages.  This can result in some rather interesting scientific realities like "twinspeak"--where two human twins will develop a language between them that is inaccessible to anyone but them, ostensibly because of such close mechanisms of perception.  This extends into big cats as well, who are hard-wired to "learn" how to "speak lion" or "speak tiger".  A lion raised with tigers has a very different worldview than a lion raised among lions.  Likewise, cats raised by humans alone tend to have difficulty communicating with members of their own species.

Another interesting aspect on this is that of deaf children. There have been communities where deaf children have developed their own sign language, basically from scratch, with no significant input from (hearing) adults.

I wish I remembered the details.

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Another interesting aspect on this is that of deaf children. There have been communities where deaf children have developed their own sign language, basically from scratch, with no significant input from (hearing) adults.

The same can be said of twins.  Or, at least that's what some sit-coms will have us believe.

I've always found languages and communication fascinating. Here's two things that have always interested me:

Imagine thinking without language. How do infants 'think,' since they do not yet understand a language? Is it similar to a dream, where it's a series of images? At what point in our development are we able to have actual thought processes? Do 'lesser' animals have cogent thought processes? Dogs and cats are able to figure things out without trial and error, so, do they 'think?'

#2: I read many years ago (in Scientific American, if I recall) that a study found that babies have an imprinted 'song' that they all recognize, no matter where they're from. That's amazing to me! If you hear the notes you immediately recognize it - kids use it to chant to each other and hum to themselves all over the world. For those of you playing at home, it can be reproduced as C C A D C C A.