this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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[–] ASeriesOfPoorChoices@lemmy.world 107 points 1 year ago (2 children)

OP doesn't know what the word "jargon" means.

[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or they’ve only heard jargon from outside their expertise.

[–] Hackerman_uwu@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean. Is the word “jargon” jargon for people who are into linguistics?

[–] Facelikeapotato@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, nonsense would've been a better word. Or word salad, it doesn't get said enough.

[–] TheDoozer@lemmy.world 28 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think you were looking for "gibberish."

[–] Bebo@sffa.community 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Exactly what I was thinking. "jargon" to be replaced by gibberish.

[–] glibg10b@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I had this exact same thought. I think "jargon" in the original post should be "gibberish".

[–] jscummy@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

Not sure if that's right. To me, it seems like OP meant to say "gibberish" instead of "jargon"

[–] ledtasso@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago

I had precisely the same idea. I suppose "jargon" should have been "gibberish."

[–] Karyoplasma@discuss.tchncs.de 0 points 1 year ago

Wernicke's aphasia.

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 92 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Something I once read is that different cats don't seem to use exactly the same noise to mean the same thing, ie, one cat might use a certain sort of meow to show that it is hungry, but another cat might use a similar meow to show that they want attention. Further, that wild cats usually stop making many such noises after they grow up, but domestic ones keep using them to communicate with people. If this is true, then the cat noises don't really represent a cat language as such since each individual cat would have it's own different set of vocabulary it develops in an attempt to get humans to understand it, being forced to resort to being all dramatic and acting like a kitten to get their message across because humans are sometimes too clueless to understand their body language.

[–] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 49 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is true, and it's absolutely fascinating, because it's literally the birth of a tiny language every time. The cat makes noise and notices that the human does something it wants, which makes the cat associate the noise with the action. The human hears the noise repeatedly and notices that the cat is happy about what they are doing, so they associate the noise with the action. It's a shared language between two individuals, which is just so precious!

[–] ericisshort@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Your explanation is so precious!

[–] thorbot@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Restaldt@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

MYYYYYYYYYY PREEEEECIOUS

[–] Daeraxa@lemmy.ml 20 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've got two cats who are sisters and they indeed have very different meows, not just sound but how they use them. One has a very distinct greeting meow literally only reserved for when she hasn't seen me in a few hours that is isn't in any way replicated by her sister.

[–] Texas_Hangover@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is it a "meep ippit urp rrr" kind of sound? Cause that's how mine does it.

[–] Daeraxa@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago

No its a very high pitched 'weeoooweeeeeee'. Her sister does more of soft mew followed by a brrp.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago

i imagine it's like when we can't find the words to explain something and we just point at it and go "there, see that? that thing! over there! i'm pointing at it you dolt! aaargh!"

[–] Gyrolemmy@lemmy.world -5 points 1 year ago

Even though i won't check it i would like you to provide a source for this very cool info!!

[–] iqwertyasdf@lemmy.world 42 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Cats just meow to get our attention. Fun fact do you know that meowing is them mimicking the sounds of a baby?

[–] venoft@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Not a human baby (how could they, most cats have never seen a human baby), but as a kitten they meow to their parents to get food etc. So we're their parents now and I guess they never really grew up and became independent.

[–] joel_feila@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Well adult cats raised around humans figure out what meows work the best and that is one that sounds like baby

[–] dragonflyteaparty@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Cats meow in the same register that human babies cry. They aren't saying that cats are specifically trying to cry like a human baby, but that cats as a species have grown over thousands of years to meow in the same pitches as human babies.

[–] ChaoticEntropy@feddit.uk 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Human: "Hello mister mittens! Kiss kiss kiss!"

Cat: "Coochie coo, idiot human, don't forget to feed me."

They're baby talking right back at us.

[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While I'm still not sure if this is true, there was a very interesting clip I saw to support the evidence, where a tiger enclosure was somehow across the street from a farm's cow enclosure. The tigers had started "mooing" along their edge of the fence in an effort to make the juicy, meat-filled cows feel safe around them.

[–] ArtieShaw@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago

I've also heard that cats try to mimic birds. It's one of the theories behind that weird clacking noise they make when they see prey that's out of reach.

[–] Stuka@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

No its not. You were mislead.

[–] Theharpyeagle@lemmy.world 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Fun video from a while ago about the cat's meow ;) https://youtu.be/qeUM1WDoOGY?si=79AhTSHaMsZZ19j6

And when our cats meow, there's one thing almost every owner in the study said they did: talk back.

Honestly so adorable.

[–] JoeBigelow@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 year ago

How rude would it be if I came home and ignored my cats greeting!?

[–] PipedLinkBot@feddit.rocks 5 points 1 year ago

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[–] FilthyShrooms@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

my human is bilingual, but they're still getting the hang of it

[–] dangblingus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 year ago

Well, if you were speaking actual jargon to your cat, if your cat was knowledgeable about the niche topic of discussion, surely they would respond.

[–] Lexica@yiffit.net 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wait.. you guys can't understand your cats?

I read a headline on the internet once (in other words: What I'm about to say is almost certainly bullshit) that cat owners can understand THEIR OWN cats.

Anecdotally as a cat owner, it seems we train each other, cat makes a noise to get attention, human gives a kind of attention when hearing that noise, cat starts making that noise to get that specific attention. My cat has a food meow, an attention meow, a bath water meow (my cat likes to drink from the tub faucet) and a "it's 3 AM and my brain can't handle it" meow, and I can definitely tell them apart. There's also a difference between the "enjoying a shoulder rub" purr and the "make me breakfast make me breakfast make me breakfast make me breakfast" purr. Hand me a different cat and that cat speaks mandarin Swahili.

[–] Hackerman_uwu@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Basically OP is their own cats April Ludgate.

[–] rob64@startrek.website 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

"The usual? Cake and pop?" "No, April, the unusual." "Fish and pop?" "No." "Cake and fish?" "No fish!"

[–] Flaky_Fish69@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

You called?

[–] bcjin@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago