How do you say "cat" in... ?

Question

I'm trying to learn how to say "cat" in as many languages as possible. I already know GATTO (Italian), GATO (Spanish), CHAT (French), KATZE (German), and KOT (Russian). If your native language isn't any of the above, could you help me please? Or if you speak a second language that is different from those listed above... Please, don't forget to let me know which language it is!!!

If you give me the phonetic transcription as well, so that I can pronounce it correctly, I'll give you best answer ;-)

Thanks!

Answer 1

American Sign Language:

Make a circle with you index finger and thumb with your other three fingers sticking up in the air... kind of an old fashioned "a-ok" sign or as if you were about to pick up a mouse by its tail. Using that hand figure, draw whiskers from your nose out to your cheeck.

Answer 2

I spent four months in Pakistan some years ago, and I remember that cats were called billi or maano billy (I think the latter means kitty-cat). My little "sister" in the family I was living with was nicknamed maano billi.

(This has to be the phonetic transcription because even though I know how to write it in Hindi, I have no idea how to do that on my computer.)

Billi is Hindi-Urdu so would be used throughout Pakistan and much of India. However, I was living with a family in Punjab, so maano billi may be unique to that region. I have provided a link for a Panjabi translation of an English nursery rhyme. You should check it out. (I can't write the title here because it is automatically censored. Go figure, with all the crap that people write on this site.)

Just an aside, one of my four cats is named Billy in homage to that time I spent in the Punjab. Great people. I want to go back.

P.S. How weird is it that kitty in French is minou, in Spanish it's minino and in Panjabi it's maano. I guess it all derives from the meow.

Answer 3

In Polish it's KOT
A small Cat is "kotek" or "kociątko" [kociontko] (note* "ci" is pronounced almost like "ch" in "cheese" only a bit more softly)
It can also be "kociak" - you can call a hot girl like that.

Answer 4

well i was going to give you the abenake word for cat but the page i use has ben supresed under federal stuatute yada yada yada pound sand you racist bastards/heresthebird-section K>M.a

ps: i think your first response to my qestion about the cats name was probably right my land lord got her when she was 1 year old and it acurately describes her

Answer 5

In Mayan its "meese" I'm not sure if that's the correct spelling but that's how it's pronounced, like "geese" but "meese". Hope this helps!

Answer 6

hi cat lady
in Hindi cat is called "BILLI" (rhymes with lilly)
Pls consider this as a present to the answer you gave me for my question. (I would never spare a human who helps me in any case; and nothing is free in NY too)

Answer 7

Hi,
Here's how to say cat in formal classical Arabic:
Qita (cat-female)-stress on 't'
Qit (cat -male)
Hirra- stress on 'r'
If you'd like it in local arabian dialects
Otta (Egypt)-stress on 't'
Bissa (Lebanon,Palestine,Syria,Jordan ) -stress on 's'
Gatwa (Arabian Gulf countries)
If you find it hard remembering all these then 'Qita' will be definitely understood by all Arabs :)

Answer 8

maaeo in Thai language

Answer 9

Ukrainian:
Cat--Kit [Keet]

Kitten--Kotenyatko [Ko-te-NYA-tko]

i also know it in german, russian, and spanish, but u already got it in those languages

Answer 10

I was given a great cat by a Persian who called her "Pishi" (pronounced pee-shee), their word for "cat".