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Comment by zabzonk | Hacker News Reader

> when cats want something (usually food), they deploy an insistent, chainsaw-like purr

all the ones i know go miaow.

> Scientists at the University of Sussex have shown that that bears some phonetic resemblance to a human baby’s cry.

have these "scientists" ever heard a cat purring, a chainsaw, or a baby crying? three sounds that could not be more different!

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I have heard all of these sounds, and I totally understand what they mean in this article.

I'm pretty sure it depends on cats though, but I know exactly what they mean by a cat deploying "an insistent chainsaw-like purr that bears some phonetic resemblance to a human baby's cry". I have known cats that did that.

i have known cats make all sorts of weird noises, but sounding like a chainsaw? no. also, babies don't sound like chainsaws.

I think the "chainsaw" comparison was more about the volume. I definitely know some cats who you can hear from across the room which will bring up a chainsaw comparison as a metaphor for loud.

And vice versa we call nice sounding engines "purring", coz they kinda sound like cat purring when idling

Listen to the pattern of a babies cry. It isn’t just one WAAAAAA, it has stops and intonation.

Similar to my cat (he is a loud purrer) who makes a Puurrrr-hurrr-purrr-urrrr kind of ebb and flow in the same way babies go WAAAAA-AAAA

...do they purr when they want something ? Coz that's what this "scientists" claim

The article is all of 1000 words and doesn't use the term "chainsaw". Whether this is an incorrect embellishment on the part of the Guardian writer or not, I'm not sure it's necessary to belittle these researchers.

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(09)...

This first line made me wonder if the author had ever met a cat, or a human baby. Or a chainsaw.

Or a motorcycle.

I would think that they're referring more to the rumbling sound of a small two-stroke engine idling as opposed to a chainsaw running at full throttle while cutting wood. Here in the southeast US, at least, it not unusual to describe the sound of an engine idling as "purring" or even "purring like a kitten."

Cats sound like a v-twin though, not a chainsaw motor.

I think cat purrs are pretty similar to low percussive sound of a two-stroke chainsaw idling.

Yeah it sounds like tenuous pseudoscience to me, but that might just be the T. Gondii speaking.

As a new parent, I can confirm that a cat's meow sounds quite a lot like a baby crying from a distance. Damn cat has woken me up in a panic more than once.

> all the ones i know go miaow.

The ones I've had/have (five in total) personally, they meow. And loudly at that. But I did also meet cats that trill and "burst purr" to signal they want attention - IIRC, many of 'em were former street cats unlike my other cats who all were "purely" domesticated.

one of mine just becomes a pest sitting on near and in-front of me making not a peep but ensuring I literally cannot ignore her. The other just sits and watches

>all the ones i know go miaow

Yeah, these people seem like they've never had cats before. Purring does not mean hunger.

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