Do cats understand human speech and how is it expressed?

It is said that if pets started talking, people would lose their last friends. A person will never know if this is true, because there is no hope of ever having a talk with his pet. However, communication with a pet is a common thing. Sometimes, turning to the cat, it seems that she understands what is being said.

There are several opinions about whether cats can understand human phrases. However it may be, scientists have proven that a cat responds not to words, but to intonation, with which speech is made.

Felinologist Logan Forbes conducted an interesting experiment. Each time before visiting the veterinary clinic, she would tell the cat with the same intonation: “We go to the vet”. Subconsciously, the animal became associated with unpleasant procedures, and the cat began to hide after hearing this phrase. As soon as the owner spoke the same words with a different intonation, the cat reacted indifferently to them.

Also found another unusual observation: the cat adapts to the owner's emotional background. According to some scientists, these animals react to gestures. Phonetic scholar Susanna Schelz proved that cats are trying to interact with people in a special language. They capture the gestures and movements of the owner, memorize them and adapt to his behavior.

The words of the cat are unlikely to understand, but they feel from the voice of the owner what he wants to say. If a cat is trained and easily executes commands that are pronounced by its owner, then the same cat is unlikely to respond to the same commands given by another person. Such stories are known, and they prove that the cats themselves do not distinguish the words themselves, but they can understand the owner. Another experiment showed that the animal recognizes the owner's voice.

When different people turned to the object of experience, including the owner, the cat responded to the voices of all the participants in the experiment, but when she heard her master's voice, her pupils dilated, indicating a violent emotional reaction.

Veterinary specialist Anastasia Nikolina believes that the animal is able to memorize a specific combination of sounds of human speech, therefore, it can memorize its nickname and respond to it.

In general, it is considered that these animals are not inclined to communicate with a person, because at one time they themselves came to human houses, they did not have to be tamed like dogs. They do not feel obliged to man. For example, most cats respond to their name only when they hear the sound of opening food, and in other cases the pet cannot be reached - he prefers not to provide a favor to the owner, but to come to him only at will.

Thus, cats determine by intonation what the owner wants to say. If a gentle voice to pronounce various names to the cat, then she will be happy, because she was approached with tenderness in her voice.

There are several signs pointing to certain emotions of a pet.

• Seeing that the cat narrowed its eyes, we can assume that she was tired and wants to take a nap.
• When a cat comes up to the owner's feet and starts rubbing, it can mean that she is hungry. In the same way, animals express their love towards the owner.
• The ears that stand up clearly indicate that the cat is interested in something. If his ears are pressed, then maybe he wants to attack in the process of playing or conflict.
• Wide-open eyes and rounded pupils indicate the fear of a pet.
• Purring is a sign of a good mood. Most likely, at this moment the animal is petted, stroked or played with it.
• The uterine rumble says that the pet is dissatisfied with something and demands to leave her alone.
• A hissing and open mouth always indicate that the animal is threatening something, trying to scare away. It is better not to touch the pet at such a moment.
• Hearing the cat howl, it can be assumed that he expresses anger and frustration. Perhaps something didn’t work for him, and so he is annoyed.

Usually, the owners are well aware of the nature of their four-legged friend and understand it without the above signs. Each cat has its own characteristics. For example, there are talker cats that accompany all their actions by meowing or rumbling. Meeting at the door of the owner, please feed, call to play - all these actions can be performed under rumbling, then the cat communicates with the owner, and usually the owners know the meaning of different sounds in the pet's voice.

If it is noticed that the cat is sitting or lying with its mouth open, and the danger does not threaten it from anyone, then this indicates physical pain experienced by the cat. Perhaps she was poisoned. A pet sitting near a bowl of water, trying to drink water but not doing it, but merely peering into the bowl, most likely picked up a serious viral illness, such as panleukopenia.

So that the animal understands the person, the owner should learn some rules of communication with cats. As already mentioned, cats hear words, but their meaning is incomprehensible to them. For example, according to some experiments of zoologists, these animals do not understand the word "no", so there is no point in weaning a pet from some kind of action with the help of this word.

Below are other recommendations for establishing contact with the cat.

• It is necessary to follow the tone during communication. It is not necessary to raise the voice, talking to the domestic predator, as it responds to the mood of the owner, focusing on the tone and volume of the spoken phrases. Should behave openly.
• When meeting with an unfamiliar animal, you need to squat down and slowly stretch a hand in his direction with an open palm pointing upwards. With this gesture, a man will show that there is nothing in his hand to threaten the cat. If the palm is down, the cat may perceive it as a threat.
• It is proved that the most expressive gesture for a cat is a raised finger or a finger extended to the cat's face. This study was conducted with the participation of 40 cats. Experience has shown how these animals respond to human gestures. Thus, it can be concluded that something can be explained to the cat by pointing to the desired object with a finger.

You can find out if cats understand human speech in the next video.