Can Cats of Different Countries Communicate With Each Other
Sometimes we like to sit with our friends, discussing random cat topics. One curious through that popped up brought the issue of cat communication to the table. Can cats of different countries communicate with one another? How universal is cat language? Linguistics is a vast field with respect to human languages and we can only imagine how amazing Dr. Dolittle was when getting into animal lingo. Random discussion leads us on to our next query, do cats have accents depending when they are from? Let’s have a light hearted look at everything meowing in the household.
Cats are generally deemed to possess universal language skills. One cat can effectively communicate its pleasure or anger to another perfectly fine. Yet there are some subtle differences between cats when they communicate in their daily lives, and that’s the voice or accent of a cat.
Cats residing in different origins will possess slightly different tones and meowing structure depending on their environment. Meows are the first line of communication that humans can hear and as loving owners, we always pay attention to our fluffy friends. Whether they are happy, angry, hungry or scared. The meows of our cats are very telling and this extends as a variation between country to country too.
Research points out that vocalization of cats is a specific behavior that is tailored towards their human companions. This is a special communication tool that is reserved for us humans from an early stage of life. As kittens grow, they retain their meowing vocalization abilities as effective means of communications with us humans who have a hard time understanding cat language as it is. We are ever so thankful to cats for taking the time to develop their own communication network, showing us that talking is so last meowllennium.
Cat to cat interactions are not usually facilitated by meowing at all. These intelligent feline friends spend their time with experimental meows that discover their desired means of communication. One meow might be for formal requests of food, others might be a gentle greeting. It’s an amazing yet understated ability that cats possess when meowing for humans. We might even compare artificial intelligence and machine learning to a similar process as your cat keeps a database of universal meows that it will need to use in the future.
Further studies carried out in Sweden investigated the differences between international meows, exploring differences in sound with results confirming variations based on region. This means that cats actually inherit their ‘accents’ from you, their owner. Your own voice and language will shape the way a cat responds.
While this research is not an insight into how cats communicate with each other, it does reveal that cats possess an intelligent ability to adjust their own voices when exposed to different form of vocal communication. These accents however, do not affect cat-cat conversations at all.
Researchers suggest that cats are capable of vocalizing in 100 different calls, but these sounds are not their main medium of communication. It’s simply the open channel that they use to guide us humans. Rather than vocalizing and meowing at each other as we might when having a gathering, cats will resort to body language, purrs, grows, hisses and maybe a yelp or two.
Understanding cat language is not an easy task. Through careful observation however, we can just about pick up the nature of an interaction. We might compare this to watching a movie without subtitles. We can kind of get a feel of what’s going on, in the most basic sense. If a cat is observed to growl, hiss or yelp, these are signs of defense or offence. We like to group this under the cat hostility scene, an interaction that is universal and can be compared to heated argument between humans. Keeping a close eye on things isn’t a bad idea in case a few paws start flying.
Cats who maintain an amicable relationship will produce softer purring sounds towards one another. This is a positive indication that the cats in question are comfortable around one another and wish to express their happiness. It’s sweet and shows that cats can enjoy a loving and caring friendship. Life is simpler in the cat world, we might even call it efficient in comparison to the complex meowing system that our lovely kitties have created to communicate with us.
Language is reliant on a need to communicate, this is clear from the fact that cats create an intelligent system to get their way around us humans. Cats interact with each other without this complexity but an instinctual set of communication tools are used universally between these feline friends. Where language is not required, cats rely on body language, smell, ear posture, tail movement and many other forms to get their messages across.
So if you were wondering, if I take my cat on holiday or a foreign kitty comes visiting, will they be able to communicate? Sure, cats don’t need to vocalize using speech and can communicate perfectly fine no matter where they’re from. We are lucky that cats have decided to meow at us with instructions. If your cat meows at you, remember how special you are and be sure to respond as soon as possible. Nobody likes to be left hanging in their DMs. If your cat is talking to you, they must need something. Meow! 🧡
Images used in this post are taken from sources with no attribution required
References:
http://vr.humlab.lu.se/projects/meowsic/studies.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3485975/Does-cat-ACCENT-Study-hopes-reveal-felines-speak-different-meows-depending-live.html
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