#catspeak

[madewithonerib]

Cat Learned English: Hello

[queenrepent]

"hey (cat) girl

(cat) person, I mean"

[boogiepophantom]

Teri Gender Bender (2023)

[clanofwhispers]

"I'm the only warrior left alive. But if you want to take WhisperingClan away from those kits, I will kill you as many times as it would take to drain all your lives away."

-- Rosestripe, speaking to the leader of CreekClan

Welcome to yet another ClanGen blog! Call me Scourge (he/it), my main art blog is @deerskull-art :] If you like what I do, please consider tossing a few bucks my way, whether it's for free or for art!

Trigger Warnings: - Character/animal death and injury - Cult themes (more will be added as necessary)

Settings: - Allow mass extinction events - Increased same-sex adoption - Allow cats to breed with cats who aren't their mates - Allow cats to have kittens with an unknown second parent - Allow leaders to automatically choose a new deputy - Cats will never retire due to a permanent condition - Allow warriors and elders to choose to become mediators

Lore and taglist under the cut!!

Taglist: #whispers - for updates #tales - for writing involving the cats #scribbles - for non-update art #catspeak - for asks directed at the characters #screego talk - for ooc asks directed at myself

Lore

WhisperingClan is one of six clans in a large, mostly forested and hilled area, with a small lake in the centre with creeks running into and off it. The Clans have a dedication to staying independent from the others, and especially away from loners, rogues, kittypets, and Twolegs. Each clan's camp is completely unknown to anyone outside of their own clan members. [TERRITORY MAP]

Each clan has a niche centred around stealth.

WhisperingClan come and go like whispers on the wind, there for a moment and gone the next - however, after the tragedy that befell them, they had to rework this into a more defensive standpoint.

HollowClan are experts in making hidden spaces across their territory, either to hide in themselves or cultivate the natural prey population, gaining their name from the hollowing out of tree stumps or digging into shallow caves.

SootClan creates what they call "pelt-paint" from mud and ash from cooking, often staying entirely coated in it to stay unnoticed, even when attending Gatherings.

DriftClan simply drifts from place to place, never being where they're expected to be. Being a generally smaller clan focused on mediation between the other five, they often walk the exact border lines, making sure that they're not being encroached upon. They tend to stay around the neutral territory of the lake, however.

CreekClan takes the majority of water-based activity in the clans, perfecting silently swimming and diving in order to catch prey and hide away from enemies. They're most often seen hiding underwater and dragging prey into the water, drowning it. Most view them as the clan most comfortable with violence.

QuietClan was originally an offshoot of WhisperingClan, formed after a civil war generations ago. Surprisingly, after the war ended, relations with their parent clan have been strong and unbreakable, often supporting each other in times of need. They take to using the natural noise of the world around them to cover their own movements.

The Salvation is a group of highly religious rogues that have been attempting to move into the area in order to unite the clans under their Divine Ruler. They've inducted exiles, loners, kittypets, and possibly even members of the clans into their ranks. While their numbers are small, they don't interfere with clan matters, as they have been run out of attempts to worm into Gatherings. They are nothing if not persistent, though, and have taken to drastic measures in order to infiltrate the clans... Starting with the slaughter of Hazystar and WhisperingClan.

[bettercatsuggest]

I am in your cabinets

eating your

T  R  E  A  T  S

[sparrowminder]

Catspeak: Sound Choice

So I spent some time looking at an actual cross-section of a cat mouth in order to nix some sounds (mainly plosives, since I don’t imagine they’d be easy with a thin little tongue). Other than that, I tried to keep it to sounds that cats actually make. The end result I want is something very liquid and vowel-based, with nasals and hissing sounds as the main consonants.

I kept the vowels to a simple set. There’s plenty of diphthongs, and though the language isn’t tonal, it can sometimes sound that way because of the lilting manner the cats tend to speak in.

transcription / IPA symbol / example or explanation 

My dialect is very close to standard TV American, if that helps.

Consonants:

m / m /  as in man n / n / as in net ng / ŋ / as in sing r / ɹ or ɾ / as in right, or a tap/flap rr / r / rolled r s / s / as in sit sh / ʃ / as in shake hh / x / velar fricative h / h / as in help y / ʎ / as in yell w / w / as in wait l / l / as in light

Vowels and Diphthongs:

i / ɪ / as in sit ii / i / as in feet e / ɛ / as in pet u / u / as in scoot a / æ / as in bad aa / ɑ / as in stop ei / ɛi / as in play ai / ɑi / as in fly au / æu / as in spout iu / iu / as in mew ua / uɑ / as in squat

[boogiepophantom]

Teri Gender Bender (2023)

[bettercatsuggest]

I have lunch

Brought you dead rat and tiny bird from next house’s cage

enjoy