976. This week, we dive into the "cativerse" and explore the vocabulary, grammar, and spelling habits of our furry friends. Plus, don't get tripped up by "imply" versus "infer." In the second segment, we dive into the definitions, origins, and proper usage of these often-confused words.
976. How have our pets influenced the way we use language? This week, we dive into the "cativerse" and explore the vocabulary, grammar, and spelling habits of our furry friends. From LOLcats to doggo dialects, discover the linguistic wonders of how we talk about our beloved pets. Plus, don't get tripped up by "imply" versus "infer." In the second segment, we dive into the definitions, origins, and proper usage of these often-confused words.
The pet-speak segment was written by Susan Herman, a retired U.S. government multidisciplined language analyst, analytic editor, and instructor.
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Grammar Girl here. I’m Mignon Fogarty, your friendly guide to the English language. We talk about writing, history, rules, and other cool stuff. This week, I have a super fun piece about dog and cat language on the internet and a practical piece about "imply" versus "infer."
But before we start, I have a funny story. If you listened to last week's show, I enthusiastically told David H. Lawrence the 17th how I planned to record an audiobook of one of the Hardy Boys books. Well, after the interview, in the absolute nicest way possible — he's so kind — David told me I actually can't do that, at least not if I want to put it on Audible because they require that you have at least 10% new material for public domain books. So now I have to figure out how I'm going to beef up a Hardy Boys book. I'm thinking it might be fun to add a girl or add supernatural elements, I dunno. But I'm still definitely taking David's "how to record your own book" course. But … if you don't hear that I have an audiobook for sale in the near future like I said I would, that's why — I actually don't have a book to record. His expertise has now shown me how to use my podcasting software better AND saved me from making a horrible time-consuming mistake. If you want to watch his three free videos or sign up for his longer class, go to narrateyourownbook.com/grammar. And the early action bonuses for signing up for the class actually expire tonight, April 9, at midnight eastern time. Those bonuses are private one-on-one coaching, a live tech-setup session, personal feedback and help with your audiobook performance, and the price is going up after tonight. So if you want those things, you need to sign up now. Again that's narrateyourownbook.com/grammar.
And now on to cats and dogs.
by Susan Herman
Did you know that April 11th is National Pet Day in the United States? People all around the world love their pets … OK, some of us (like the author of this segment) are a little obsessed … OK, she may be an official "crazy cat lady" (her words, not mine!). Anyway, according to Forbes, around 66% of U.S. homes (that's 86.9 million) have a pet. About half of all U.S. households have dogs, and 35% have cats.
The animal health advocacy group Health for Animals estimates there are more than a billion pets worldwide, and more than half of the global population has little furry friends. Again, dogs are the most popular pet, in 33% of homes worldwide, and cats are second, in 25%, and these numbers continue to rise. That's a lot of "furbabies!" And they are overwhelmingly considered part of the family, so we love to talk about them and share all their funny photos and stories with everyone else!
Speaking of which, we humans also love social media. It connects us to other people and allows us to share our interests with like-minded people across the globe. And social media use has only increased since the pandemic began. According to the data reporting and analysis service Data Reportal, the U.S. currently has about 239 million social media users — around 70% of the total population. Globally, that percentage isn't much lower. Digital marketing firm Smart Insights calculates that 62.3% of the world, or more than 5 billion people, now use social media.
But what does all that have to do with language, you ask? Well, as I mentioned before, we love to talk about our four-legged companions online. So much so that we've created our own ways to talk about them, or even talk FOR them. This phenomenon is known generically as cat language and dog language, and it is being studied in the linguistic world – yes, really!
Austrian professor and researcher Edith Podhovnik published a book in 2023 called "Purrieties of Language: How We Talk about Cats Online." According to the author, the book explores "… online language variation, and … key linguistic concepts – all through the lens of cat-related communication." Podhovnik uses vocabulary, memes, hashtags, captions, and one of the first and most famous "purrveyors" of cat-speak, "LOLcats," to describe sociolinguistic phenomena (the relationship between language and culture, class, ethnicity, occupation, and other factors), including social dialects, idiolects (or individual dialects), non-standard language variation, spelling, syntax, and morphology (or the meaning of words).
Because this is all so darned cute, we "hoomans" (spelled with two O's in dog and cat language) have adopted the way we imagine our pets would communicate using pet-inspired hashtags, posting or sharing pet photos and videos, and using pet-inspired GIFs and emojis, among other things.
Cats, in particular, have taken over the Internet, so much so that Podhovnik dubbed their online space the "cativerse." Podhovnik describes the "cativerse" as "… an online cat park we can take our cats to, which is something we cannot really do in the real world." The "cativerse" extends across all online platforms – web pages, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, YouTube, TikTok, 4chan, Tumblr, WordPress, and beyond. It is a place where cat "purrents" [P-U-R-R-E-N-T-S] go not only to feed their cat obsession, but also connect with "catzillions" of other cat lovers.
Thousands of cats — real and imagined — have individual social media accounts (like Smudge, also known as Table Cat, a real, white cat who is seen in hundreds of memes contradicting two very adamant Real Housewives with his own way of parsing words; Pusheen, a cartoon cat with a very extensive merchandise line; Nyan, a digital cat with a toaster pastry as a body, with whom you can play online games; and perhaps the most famous: the beloved, late Grumpy Cat, a female cat named Tardar Sauce who had an adorable frown due to her dwarfism. Online cats have their own pages, groups, lists, channels, forums, and even charities. And all have their own "purrsonalities," backstories, and "purrieties" of talking, spelling, and writing – or at least how we imagine they would.
But don't feel left out, dog lovers; there are tons of famous canines online, too, some of the most famous being Tuna, an adorably "ugly" chiweenie; Doug the Pug, who boasts almost 4 million followers on Instagram; and Mishka, the Talking Husky, who, along with her siblings, has her own YouTube channel where she is shown "saying" what sounds like "I love you" and other cute phrases.
But why is the Internet so cat-centric? Well, as Laura Moss described in her article "Why Cats Rule the Internet," "while dog owners can meet fellow dog lovers on walks or at local dog parks, until the Internet, cat owners had no such place to connect with fellow feline lovers. But when they logged on, they didn’t simply find a few like-minded people — they discovered millions of them." And it is a natural linguistic tendency to want to sound like the people in our social circles, whether in real life or online.
Cat memes first appeared on the Internet in 2005 and later became "LOLcats," coined by the website "I Can Has Cheezburger?" in 2007. By 2010, "LOLdogs" had been created, and "LOLspeak," a sort of "baby speak" for cats and dogs, was born. We hoomans love to anthropomorphize our pets (or assign them human attributes and characteristics, including language), so we imagine how they would write and speak.
In chapter 4 of her book, Podhovnik analyzes the spelling, vocabulary, and grammar of "LOLspeak." For example, pets often misspell words, like "cheezburger" with a Z, or "kitteh" with an EH at the end instead of a Y — kitteh. This often happens at the ends of syllables or words. Or vowel changes, like spelling "chonky" and "gromp" with O's instead of U's. I mean, it's hard for our furry friends to access an online dictionary or spellchecker without thumbs, right?
Our pets aren't really up on their grammar, either (is it possible they don't follow Grammar Girl?!), so "LOLspeak" has its own grammar. Again, we can hardly expect these "floofs" (soft, fluffy animals) to access the AP Stylebook. So we have changes in the order of words, subject-verb agreement, and such, as in "I can has cheezburger?" or a popular meme with a kitten declaring "I angy; no talk me." Or the practice of replacing word segments with animal related ones, like "purrtastic," "catastic," and "pawsome."
Cat-speak, and pet-speak in general, have unique linguistic attributes, which are detailed in Podhovnik's book. Some of them include social dialectology (the dialects cats use in various situations, like talking to their caretakers (read "butlers") versus in other situations – like at school, on the phone, or at work. They use non-standard language in informal situations, just like we do; their language is a living entity, just like ours. Take Noodles the Pooch, a famous maltipoo who, as an administrative assistant, bangs on her keyboard and sends snarky emails to her coworkers. Since she is a professional (she even wears a bun and fancy glasses), she usually uses standard English (for example, "It comes out of my mouth faster than I can stop it," versus the "I angy. No talk me," kitten.
The "meowlogisms" (neologisms, or newly invented words) are perhaps the funniest, though: I present for your consideration "zoomies" (the wild running around in circles that dogs and cats do), "toe beans" (the adorable pads on our pet's paws), and "heckin'" (an intensifier, as in "He's a heckin' chonker!").
Dutch professor and researcher Nicoline van der Sijs looked at some of these grammatical features of dog- and cat-speak in her article "'Blep,' 'Sploot' and Zoomies: Online Cats and Dogs Leave a Pawed Imprint in Dictionaries." She describes some of the unique grammatical, spelling, and speech habits of our beloved pets. For example, they might replace irregular verbs (those that don't follow standard grammar rules) with regular past-tense verbs like "eated" instead of "ate" or "seed" instead of "saw," much like a child would. They also have some spelling and pronunciation quirks and might render plural words like "tripz" and "waterz" with Z's instead of S's, and "gib" and "foob" with B's at the end instead of "give" and "food."
If you need to brush up on your pet-speak, there are online dictionaries, like "The Catnip Times'" "Dictionary of Cat Slang Terms," and vocabulary lists, like Chewy's "Sploot? Floof? Mlem? Here’s Your Guide to the Best Internet Pet Slang," where you will learn that the words in the title mean "the awkward yet adorable position of a dog (or cat) lying down with their legs stretched out behind them" ("sploot"); "a pet with fluffy, cloudlike fur" ("floof"); and "a pet's tongue sticking out" ("mlem," also a "blep"). There is even an LOLcat translator online!
It's not just about words and sayings, though. There are entire concepts inspired by our pets. For example, avid cat lovers know about the "cat tax," which is the requirement to post a cute photo with any cat-related post. Or the "Cat Distribution System," which explains why random cats show up at your house, demand food, move in, and adopt YOU as their "purrent." There's even the "Chonk Chart," which was originally posted in 2018 by Emilie Chiang in the Facebook group "THIS CAT IS C H O N K Y" (which means "big-boned). It is a sort of BMI chart and now includes dogs, which ranges from "a fine boi" (spelled with an I) to "Oh, lawd, he comin.'" It is worth checking out for a good laugh. And if your feline is lonely, check out I Can Has Cheezburger?'s cat dating app called "meowmeets," which boasts "32 Kitty Cat Dating App Purrofile Pictures to Fall in Love With at First Sight."
And lest we think that only people in the U.S. are obsessed with their "doggos" and "cattos," social media "cat-speak" and "dog-speak" is a worldwide phenomenon. You can find "petiverses" in countries like Japan, China, Russia, and even the Netherlands. Some of these English words and phrases are even being borrowed by other languages, and in her article, van der Sijs predicts that they "… will soon also be listed in Dutch lexicons."
Finally – pet lovers unite! – according to Podhovnik, "the phrase ‘crazy cat person’ is no longer derogatory, and people openly showing their love of cats are no longer stigmatized as crazy or strange." And we say the same applies to "crazy dog
people!" So go give your "absolute unit" (that is, your large and good-looking pet) a hug, unless of course, he is "splooting," in which case, take a photo immediately and post it.
That segment was written by Susan K. Herman a retired multidisciplined language analyst, editor, and instructor for the federal government.
by Mignon Fogarty
Next, a friend recently asked me about the difference between “imply” and “infer,” so I have a quick tip for you:
Implying is something done by writers or speakers, and inferring is something done by listeners, readers, or viewers.
The use of “infer” to mean “imply” has become so common that in a decade or so it may be considered standard, but for now, it’s a good idea to keep making the distinction.
When you imply, you hint at something rather than saying it directly:
“Imply” comes from a Latin word that meant “to enfold, entangle, or involve,” and it first showed up in English in the 1300s in Chaucer's translation of a piece by a Roman writer called Boethius. The Middle English is a little hard for me to understand, but I think the modern translation would be "The waters mixed, wrapped and implied many fortuitous happinesses." So it sounds like it uses "wrapped" and "implied" as similar words, getting to that "enfolding" meaning.
And here's a slightly later example from the 1400s: In a piece called "An apology for Lollard doctrines," someone wrote about "hating to be implied in secular business," again using that "enfold, entangle, and involve" meaning.
It wasn't until the late 1500s that "imply" took on our modern meaning of hinting at something, but to remember today's meaning you can think of that original meaning of enfolding something and think of an implied statement as being hidden, or folded, into what was actually said.
Now, when you infer, you are a listener, reader, or viewer and you are deducing some meaning that was left unsaid.
"Infer" comes from a Latin word that means “to bring in.” It came to English later than "imply," and pretty much meant what it means today from the get-go, although it had other meanings too for a while.
Anyway, from that "bring in" meaning, you can think of readers or listeners using their own interpretation of material to bring a meaning that isn’t explicitly stated into a sentence.
So again, implying is something done by writers or speakers — it's hinting at something, folding it into what was actually said — and inferring is something done by listeners, readers, or viewers.
Finally, I have a funny familect story.
Hello, my name is Nathan, and I'm from Illinois. About 12 years ago, my family decided to go out to eat for Thanksgiving dinner to a steakhouse named The Barnstormer. It was delicious, and we all enjoyed the meal. A few hours later at home, we all started farting, and as we all realized that we are parting together, we started to laugh. At some point, someone yelled out" Barnstormer" to announce that they were passing gas. From that point on, all my young nieces and nephews thought that the word "barnstormer" meant to pass gas or to fart. And so they would say it to people at school and share it with others and their friends. Thank you."
Thank you so much. That's hilarious — not much of a recommendation for the restaurant, but hilarious!
If you want to share the story of your familect, your family dialect, a word your family and only your family uses, call the voicemail line at 83-321-4-GIRL. It’s in the show notes, and be sure to tell me the story behind your familect because that’s always the best part.
And now, if you're a Grammarpalooza subscriber you can also send a voice memo. I send text messages with fun facts a couple of times a week, and you can also ask me questions. It's a great way to support the show and the first two weeks are free. And last week, I offered every subscriber a signed copy of the new version of my book "Grammar Girl Presents the Ultimate Writing Guide for Students." I can't promise that I'll mail you goodies in the future, but I am always thinking of nice things I can do for my Grammarpaloozians. So to sign up, visit https://joinsubtext.com/grammar or text "hello" to (917) 540-0876.
Grammar Girl is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast. Thanks to marketing associate, Davina Tomlin; ad operations specialist, Morgan Christianson; marketing assistant, Kamryn Lacey; audio engineer, Nathan Semes; director of podcasts, Brannan Goetschius, and digital operations specialist, Holly Hutchings, who just went to Dallas to see the eclipse.
And I’m Mignon Fogarty, better known as Grammar Girl. That's all. Thanks for listening.