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Friday, 28 April 2023

Can cats have regional accents like humans!?

The brilliant Ben the Vet on TikTok tells us in one of his inimitable videos that domestic cats do not have regional accents. Is he correct? 

He was querying why a cat appeared to have a scouse accent (an accent from a person from Liverpool or environs in the UK). He researched the topic and I feel happy to rely on his research. Also, it seems like common sense to me. But once again I ask if this conclusion is correct.



The cat you hear in the video just happens to meow with a scouse accent. There is nothing in it Ben would say. It's just the way this individual cutey cat is meowing.

What does it tell us that domestic cats can't develop accents like humans? It takes a culture or society or if you like a race of people to develop an accent over a very long time of evolution. English has been spoken in the UK for 1500 years. These English accents evolved gradually.

They probably start with a few people saying things in a certain way because of their anatomy which is linked to their ethnicity and it spreads and then becomes a regional accent as the population in that area grows. Babies are like sponges and pick up the accent.

The accent will be part of their culture. Cats don't have this kind of sophisticated society and culture. And therefore, they don't have accents. If we hear one it is a coincidence. That's my argument but is it true?

Counter argument

The video below, however, states that some animals can have regional accents! We have a discussion on our hands. Perhaps cats do have regional accents by copying the accent of their caregiver? I don't know. It seems possible but unlikely. If animals do have regional accents, they will probably exist by copying humans and if that it true the cat's regional accent is not a genuine one.

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