Invented languages with clicks and whistles

[Cathbad]

Some people click and cluck at their dogs, I've noticed. So maybe most Westerners think that form of speech is more animalian.

Hmm... I do click to the horses and cows. Cluck at the chickens, too.

Then again, I also meow at the cats and bark at the dogs, so... perhaps it's just me?

 

[Montero]

I click at the cats. They know from long practice that means "treat time".

 

[DelActivisto]

Hmm... I do click to the horses and cows. Cluck at the chickens, too.

Then again, I also meow at the cats and bark at the dogs, so... perhaps it's just me?

Ha. Well, I actually rarely do any of those, but I do have a whole string of odds noises I'll often use for different purposes. You know, those noises kids like to make sometimes, except I never stopped doing that. *glances around suspiciously*

I don't think animals care. They'll equate anything you say with specific things. It probably all sounds strange to them.

 

[Alexa]

Cats and dogs feel what you want before you open your mouth.

 

[Cathbad]

Cats and dogs feel what you want before you open your mouth.

Yeah, but the cats don't care - unless you're wanting to feed them.

 

[DelActivisto]

Cats and dogs feel what you want before you open your mouth.

They are surprisingly perceptive.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Cats and dogs can hear sounds much higher in frequency than humans, clicking and the odd sounds produced are one way a human can generate such high pitched frequencies that cuts above the normal range of sounds.

I can always get any cat's attention from quite a distance by deliberately targeting these frequencies.

Nothing to do with clicking languages being more 'animalian'. Dog whistles should do the same thing.

 

[Alexa]

Cats *talk* because they hear us making strange notes. They don't need many sounds *to talk* to other cats. It's all in their position. No need for clicking or whistling. Why invent another language when you can use their perceptive behaviour ?

 

[DelActivisto]

Nothing to do with clicking languages being more 'animalian'.

I didn't say they were, I said western civilization probably views it that way. A post or two at the beginning of the thread implied clicking languages were somehow backwards as well, which I also disagree with.

 

[Caledfwlch]

Hmm... I do click to the horses and cows. Cluck at the chickens, too.

Then again, I also meow at the cats and bark at the dogs, so... perhaps it's just me?

i used to meow at my cats, when I was owned by a couple of Pusses too!

I used to get the heads to one side gazing at me with "WTF, is he crazy? Why he using the "OMG look at the size of that doggie meow on us?" expressions!

Catpusses are a lot cleverer and far more loving and attached to their owners than most people, at least those who have either never owned them, or did, but began the relationship from the start assuming they were selfish food machines who wont give them love back seem to think.

Mine knew their own names for example - those not in the know often try to refute that with "oh they probably just recognised by the tone you were addressing them so responded" which probably could make sense if only one Catpuss is owned, problem is, at one point we had 3, Puss, (nice original name!) and her daughters Patch and Winny. Call Patch, and only Patch would come trotting in, or over, likewise the others - if it was simply recognising a tone of voice as meaning "cat come here" then all 3 would turn up at either of the 3 names.

They could also recognise "food" "dinner" "tea" "breakfast" and "come here" and "snuggles!" (so would hop up into lap for snuggles) "Come in" would bring them in from the outside, they would recognise & translate "walkies" as meaning the back door was now open, so they could go out to the Garden. "stop" and "put down" usually would stop them doing something naughty, or make them drop the poor Bird/Rabbit/Frog they were walking in with, "take it out" if it was dead would make them sheepishly take the poor critter outside. Not joking, Patch came home one evening carrying a Bunny Rabbit, which turned out to be completely unharmed, she had simply seen it, thought "heey! that a weerd looking Kitteh!" "ohse!, me founded a new frendsy!! me take home now, to show everyone, kfanxbai" - this is why you must never give your Catpusses even fairly basic paperwork tasks to do, as Cat's despite their brains and intelligence are simply incapable of spelling English or Welsh correctly - it's a bad move - your Cat's will simply say "lolz, silly hooman" and play with their new littertray it's the 2nd rule of Kitteh Club, and you know what? It's not your Kitteh's who will end up looking stupid!!!

They would even come running at full purr at "Brushtime" as they absolutely adored snuggling up and being brushed vigorously. Oddly enough "puss/patch/winny, bath!" had the effect of them heading in any direction, at high speed, except towards the bathroom!
"cat's are dirty/filthy creatures" is another sage claim by the ignorant that rankles with me. My Catpusses were giving a good brushing every day to 2 days, to get rid of loose/dead hair etc, and keep their coats looking nice and shiny, their footpads and claws, especially when the weather was anything except dry/sunny were cleaned with wipes at a similar timescale, or more often, if it was rainy/muddy out, their claws trimmed once a month, and they received a bath with special pet shampoo every 4 weeks, and were not turned loose after, but properly dried with a towel and brushed. You could always tell if it was bath day or within a couple days after, as me and my ex Fiance would have scratches on our arms, once, I had a massive one down my face! they may have been loving little pusses, but not during a bath, then it's like trying to tickle a Mafia Don, not much fun!

We got puss at 8 weeks - well that's what the people who's cat's kitten she was said - she was always really small/runt of their little, but the other 2 they had were the same, and like us, our Vet, when we took her to him, the next morning after we adopted her, to get her cat flu jab etc was convinced she was actually only 6 or 7 weeks old. But especially the first few days, she was handled/stroked constantly, sat on laps being stroked, played with loads, toy mouses on string and so on, even a bit of very careful playfighting when she started playfighting with us, and that all helps hugely in developing their intelligence, and socialising them, and so they don't miss their mummycat and brothers/sisters too much. First night at ours, we did what people tend to do/say to do, made sure she had plenty of food/water, made her a comfy basket with old blanket, toys & teddy to curl up with (following another bit of advice, even stuck an analogue bedside clock next to the basket, as the ticking supposedly helps, as they are used to sound of mum/siblings purring and heart beats.
Luckily, the door from living room to upstairs was usually open, and the bedroom door was off its hinges awaiting replacement, as within 40 mins of going to bed, there were heartbreaking lonely little meows coming from the side of the bed (was amazed she got up the stairs, being so little) so I picked her up, and she dozed off in about 30 seconds purring like mad, snuggled up to me, ex didnt want her in middle between us in case she got squished, and also seemed to be really miffed it was my side of bed that Puss had come too!! And I think that helped massively with the bonding, apart from a couple of times when we went away, I can't actually think of a single occasion in her life, where I either didn't fall asleep with her snuggled up, or woke up with her next to me! (Or when she was older, sat on bedside cabinet in morning watching me like a hawk, and as soon as she thought I was waking up, starting to give little "oi, breakfast please daddy!" meows. Ex genuinely used to get really jealous, as Puss wouldn't always come when she called, maybe 1 out of every 4 times! and she would never sleep on ex's side of bed, or even give her her "food please" meows, if I was at work, she would happily sit there for hours and only when I got home would she come to me, and meow for food if she was hungry. Puss wasnt very keen on sitting in ex's lap to be stroked or brushed either - which imo proves my point, that you have to properly bond with your new kitten, or they wont be sociable and really loving - Puss's 2 daughters, we sold 2 and kept those 2, right from start Ex did what I said, like I said above, about handling loads etc, with Patch and Winny, which she didnt do with Puss, not as much as I was - though it perhaps made a difference that I had a week off work the week we adopted her, so I got to spend a lot more time with her. And Patch & Winny was as close to both of us, as Puss was too me.

If you have a Catpuss who has kittens, if the mum allows you to - then handle the Kitteh's as much as possible, from the moment they are born, research has shown that it gives a massive boost to their intelligence & socialisation, handling them loads even a couple days old helps hugely, and certainly wont do them harm - you just have to keep an eye to make sure the mum is cool with it, because you don't want her getting stressed, or worried, especially since if they feel really stressed/threatened Mummycats can end up killing their kittens. And it showed with Puss's first 4, how that handling helps, they were doing stuff a couple of weeks or more earlier than kittens normally do, at I think 4 weeks old, they sussed out how to get down the stairs to explore and come say hello to me and ex, also, to follow their poor mum around, which led to the poor thing constantly picking them up one by one, and carrying them back up to her basket in our bedroom, only, by the time she was coming up the stairs with the last, thinking thank god that's over, the first she took up would meet her, on its way back down... as I said, the bedroom didnt have a door - we did try relocating the basket to another room, actually put it into a baby cot, with sheets hung down to block the bars - impossible for them to get out, but no problem for her to come and go, but that evening, went up to check on them, no sign in cot, checking the house, worried, to find she had made a new nest for herself and the Kits, on a pile of laundry in a laundry basket in our bedroom! Puss was absolutely determined that she didn't want peace and quiet in another part of the house, she wanted herself and the kits to be in the bedroom with us at night. It took 2 or 3 days, if that for the little sods to work out how to climb out of the laundry basket (it was about 3 or 4 feet high) so, we used the broken old bedroom door to block put a barrier across it.
It took them about 40 minutes to circumvent it!! it wasn't a huge room, and along the wall next to the door was one of those huge room length wardrobes, with drawers, a mirror and makeup desk in the middle, and on the end, by the door, shelves for shoes and things, they were climbing the shelves and hopping over the barrier... Poor Puss ended up just giving up on carrying them back. She knew they were safe, she would cuddle up on my lap with them whilst I watched TV, she just wanted a break from being a mum is why she was carrrying them back I think.

 

[Danny McG]

Well, if you can find anything about any of the many "click languages" in the real world it might help you. The most famous one (spoken by a contestant on X Factor, of all things!) is Xhosa.

Then there is Klunk