MeowChat and PetSpeak

Wow, you kids really like overanalysis of imaginary pet languages, huh? The best thing about writing Cats Can Has Grammar has been the responses.

  • Mat sent me a link to this SF Chronicle story on MeowChat, the online language adopted by cat fanciers when they impersonate their cats in online chat. Note to whomever writes the headlines over at the Chron, if you have to say, "It's not just for crazy cat ladies", it's already not true.
  • Danny also brought up MeowChat in my comments here, offering up this overview which gives us a "gives a reasonably good breakdown of that story, though unfortunately in heavily accented meow".
  • I made it to Language Log! "After a bit of investigation, though, I've decided that I don't feel badly enough about this to undergo the lolcat immersion required to change it." NO LOLCATS FOR U LOL.
  • And finally, I found the tags and descriptions that people used while bookmarking the post on del.icio.us to be delightful.

I'm Anil Dash, and I've been blogging here since 1999, writing about how culture is made. Contact me at anil@dashes.com, at +1 646 833 8659, or at anildash on Twitter or IM. Find out more »

If you're new to the site, check out my Best Of and Most Popular things I've written in the past 10 years, or explore the full archives. Browse by month or year using the calendar below.

Powered by Hunch.com

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
  Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan Jan
  Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb Feb
  Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar Mar
  Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr Apr
  May May May May May May May May May May
  Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun Jun
Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul Jul
Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug Aug
Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep Sep
Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct Oct
Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov Nov
Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec Dec