"Cat" in Different Languages
Kiri BPW
Miaow!
Just thought I'd come on to the Mewsgroup for the first time to send
feline greetings to my fellow computer users.
Are there any linguists among us who would be prepared to help me?
One of my humans is collecting the word "cat" in different languages.
She has got quite a few already, but would like to increase her list.
At present she is particularly interested in the word in Thai,
Chinese, and the languages spoken in Egypt and Bangladesh, as she is
trying to solve a competition, but any more would be gratefully
received.
these are the one she already has:-
armenian gadou
bulgarian kotki
czek kocka
danish and dutch kat
English Cat
esperanto kato
finnish kissa
french chat
german katze
greek catta
irish cait
italian gatto
japanese neko
malay kucing
maltese qattus
mexican gato
norwegian katt
persian gorbeh
polish kat
russian koshka
spanish and portuguese gato
swahili paka
swedish katt
turkish tekir
urdu billy
Lots of purrs and thanks in anticipation of your help,
--
Kiri BPW
ki...@ourhome.demon.co.uk
Improve your life by stroking a cat purr day.
babydoc
In article <836177...@ourhome.demon.co.uk>, Kiri BPW <Ki...@ourhome.demon.co.uk> says:
>
Hi Kiri: Welcome to rpc. Don't furget, if you are posting insted
of yur Hoomin yu shud put meow in da header. Wun human name what
will get mad ifn you don't is Buddbutt but dere are udders.
yur frend furevfur,
Crash, only cat fur only wun more day, wit tears in her eyes.
Margaret L. Hall
Kiri BPW wrote:
>
> german katze
(female)
a male cat is "katte"
-Peggi
Kevin Kinsella
>-Peggi
Um, this is not quite correct, though if spoken quickly it sounds like
that, it is spelt "Kater" and should be spoken with a long "a".
"Katze" (the "a" is short) is used not only for female cats but to
refer to any cat of unknown sex, and in the plural "Katzen" for cats
in general.
The German for kitten is "Kaetzchen" (spelt here with an "ae" only
because a-umlaut doesn´t work in email)
Funnily enough, "Kater" also means hangover.
Kevin
Court
In article <31D85268...@ic.sunysb.edu>, "Margaret L. Hall" <mah...@ic.sunysb.edu> wrote:
>Kiri BPW wrote:
>>
>> german katze
> (female)
>
>a male cat is "katte"
>
>-Peggi
Actually, it's Katze, whether it's a male cat or not, in German. Note that it
is also capitalized, as are all German nouns. The word itself is feminine in
gender. Go figure, since the word for "girl" (Maedchen) is neuter.
Court, who took five or six years of German, and has close friends who are
*from* Germany.
--
Give it to Mikey...he'll eat anything!
http://www.swt.edu/~cs22657/court2.htm
Daniëlle Snellen
Hello,
More linguistics here!
The word cat in Dutch is 'kat'. This is the general term. For female cats
we use the word 'poes' and for male cats the word 'kater'. A kitten we also
call a 'kitten'.
For a neutered 'kater' the term 'je-weet-wel-kater' is common (the term
comes from a well known Dutch comic). It litteraly means
'you-know-what-I-mean-cat'.
Love,
from Danielle,
who is proud to be owned by Pim and Alex.
Aramis
When we were in Tue, 02 Jul 1996 15:18:33 GMT, there came Kevin Kinsella
and stated on fs6...@public.uni-hamburg.de that...
>>-Peggi
>because a-umlaut doesn´t work in email)
>Funnily enough, "Kater" also means hangover.
>Kevin
cat (male) gato
cat (female) gata
--
Third_galaxy_after_black_hole#9999. Via_lactea. solar_system @ Earth.
north_hemisphere.
europe. *Portugal*. Lisbon. by_the_river. person waving.
My spelling gets better everyday. If you found some errors in my typing,
please be patient...
Have a good life.
Aramis.
David A Thomas
We did this last year (and the year before), for over 20 different
languages. Couldn't someone just re-post the table and save a lot
of time?
--
David Thomas (da...@micro.ti.com)
Texas Instruments, Houston (713)-274-2347
M Patterson
This is the compilation of replies to my first-ever post to r.p.c,
dated May, 1995. The responses dribbled in over the following
four or five months.
As I said back then...thanks to everyone who replied.
Afrikaans: kat; kitten = katjie
Algonquin (Cherokee): sinta
Am. Sign Language: "take thumb and forefinger, put them alongside
face and open and close them while stroking (your whiskers)
outward..."
Arabic: Ghat ("gh" is guttural) , Qit or biss
Aramic: shunra
Armenian: gatz
Bahasa (Indonesia): cusing ("koo-ching)
Basque: Katu
Bengali: biral
Bulgarian: kotka
Cajun "French": kitty = Minou
Chinese (Pinyin): mao ("ao" like "now", high pitch, even tone)
Czech: Kocka; male = kocour; female = kocka
Danish: Kat; kitten = Kattekilling; also use Mise
Dutch: kat; female = poes ("poos" like "goose");
male = kater; male kitten = katje ("kat-ya");
kittens = katjes; female kitten = poesje
Egyptian (ancient): Mou ("ou" as in "ouch")
Egyptian: miw (comma instead of dot over the "i") or kut
Eskimo: Pussi
Esperanto: kato; kitten = katido; tomcat = virkato; clowder = kataro
Estonian: kass
Filipino: pusa
Finish: kissa; baby cat = kissanpentu; male = kolli; female = narttu;
affectionate: kisu, misu, mirri (mirri has an additional, "naughty"
meaning)
Fulaani (Nigeria): (phonetic) = holoondoo ("who loon do")
French: cat = Le Chat (silent "t") or Matou; kitty = Minou ("mee-noo");
puss = Minet(te); kitten = chaton
German: female = die Katze (KAT-tse); male = der Kater;
cats = die Katzen; kitten = das Kaetzchen ("cats-chen",
written with umlaut over "a"); kitty (and other nicknames) =
Mietze ("MEET-sah"), Puschi, Pussi
Greek: Ga'ta; kitten = gataki
Gypsy (Lovar dialect): muca
Hawaiian: Popoki; kitten (literally "cat child") = popokikeiki
Hebrew: Chatool ("ch" is representation of a single letter in Hebrew,
guttural sound); male = Chatul; female = Chatula;
kitten male = Chataltul; kitten female = Chatatula
Hindi: (phonetically) Billie
Hungarian: Macska ("much-ka"); kitten (literally "little cat") = kismacska
Icelandic: kottur (umlaut over "o")
Indonesian: Kutjing
Irish: cat
Italian: male = gatto; female = gatta; cats = gatti; kitten male =
gattino; kitten female = gattina
Japanese: Neko ("Neh-ko); kitten = koneko; affectionate form = neko-chan or
neko-chan
Kazakh: mysyk
Kinkongo (Zaire): Nyau
Kmer: chima (long "a")
Korean: koyangi ("koh-yang-ee")
Lakhota-Sioux: igmu
Latin: felis, feles, felix or cattus
Latvian: kachit or kakis
Lithuanian: Cat-ti-a; female = Katite
Loglan: katma
Macedonian: female = machka; male = machor
Malay: kuching; "sweet little pussy cat" = kuchinta
Mandarin: (phonetically) mao (rhymes with "cow")
Manx (Isle of Man): kayt; cats = kiyt; tomcat = kayt firryn;
kitten = pishin
Navajo: Moosi
Norwegian: Katt
Persian/Farci (Iran): gorbeh (stress on second syllable);
kitty = peesh-ee (peesh rhymes with lease, -ee like a short i)
Pig Latin: at-cay :-)
Polish: Kot ("o" pronounced like "ou" in "court"); affectionate = kotek
Portugese: gato; female = gata; kitty = gatito or gatinho
Quechua: michi; little cat = michicha
Romanian: pisica ("peeseecka"); cats = pisici; male = motan
Romansch: giat ("DJE-ah-t")
Russian: male= kot; female = koshka; kitten = kotyonok ("koht-yon-ok");
affectionate form = koshenka; kitty = kiska
Rumanian: Negru
Scots gaelic: cat; kitten = piseag; feline = mar chat
Serbo-Croatian: Macka
Spanish: gato; minino ("me ne no")
Swahili: Paka
Swedish: katt; kitten (literally "cat child") = kattunge; kitty = kisse
Swiss Deutsche slang: kitty, kitty, kitty = Boozzhi, boozzhi, boozzhi
Tagalog (Phillipine dialect): pusa ("poo-sah")
Tamil (Indian language also spoken in Sri Lanka & Singapore):
(phonetically) poo-NAI
Thai: Maa-oh
Turkish: Kedi; cats = Kedilar
Ukrainian: kotuk ("kohtihk"); affectionate: kitcha; "one who purrs" =
Morrchik
Vietnamese: Con meo
Welsh: cath; kitten = cath fach; feline = fel cath, cathaidd
Wolof (?): moose
Yiddish: ketzl; kitten = ketzleh
Joan Digney
Hi Kiri
As far as I Know (I'm not Chinese) the Chinese word for
cat is Mao. I found this out from a Chinese friend who
asked me what my cat's name was when I took her to work one
day. He said "what is your cat's name" I said "Mao", he said
"no, I know its a cat, what is her name?" So it was solved that
Mao was Chinese for cat.
Joan
Hugh Wahlin
Contrary to earlier posting, common German slang for hangover is
katzenjammer (cat "yammer", cat fight). Remember the old-time comic strip
named "The Captain and the Kids"? It was originally called the
Katzenjammer Kids. Pretty good analogy, I think, between a miserable
headache and a noisy catfight in the middle of the night.
Gwen Orel
I'd like to add that the Czech should have a hacek over the c, meaning that
it is pronounced "kochka" (the default for cat unless you know for sure it's
male.)
Gwen
M Patterson (rid...@gate.net) wrote:
Stuart McGuinness
In article <4rnjp6$8...@scooby.beloit.edu>, Gwen Orel
<or...@stu.beloit.edu> writes
cat-(noun)matou (m)ton ton. Manx cat (ie tailless) Cat equoutai.
--
Fran McGuinness
What are you doing in October?
Why not visit the Guernsey Real Ale and Cider Festival.
Festival Home Page: http://www.io.com/~njrw/camragsy/gsybeerf.html
Kevin Kinsella
GDK...@prodigy.com (Hugh Wahlin) wrote:
Getting off-topic for RPC, my apologies, but the aboe is just not
right:
"Katzenjammer" was university-stundent slang for hangover in the 18th
and 19th centuries ( "jammer" meaning not fight but "howl in misery,
complain"), lost this meaning about the time of the first world war
and has since fallen into complete disuse except for so-called
"literary" writing, where it is used for comic effect to describe any
feeling of unease.
I have *never* heard the word spoken during 15 years living in
Hamburg, speaking and hearing the language all day, every day.
Don´t ever say "Katzenjammer": the Germans are a very direct people
and will laugh at you outright; say "Kater", it is the common term.
Kevin
AReyes1234
Hi!
Here is another "cat-derived" word, in Spanish:
A person known as a "Mojigato" or "Mojigata" is someone who is slick and
sneaky or sly and deceptive/snotty and such. Mojar is the verb "to wet"
and Gato/gata is cat (masc. or fem.) so together, the literal translation
would be "wet-cat". Go figure.
Alex
Areye...@aol.com
Molly Lee
In Malaysian...
Kuching.
In Chinese,
Miao, or "siau hwa mao" = little flower cat.
In Kadazan, (if anyone even knows what Kadazan is...)
Tingau.
- -
( - ) moll...@teor.com
---
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