My human is still working on her yearly tax madness! Now, it’s all about finding the cost basis for something called a “mutual fund.” She had to pull out old tax returns from before I was born. So I did the logical thing: I sat on them and pondered. Not about anything in particular, just stuff. Except my mind kept returning to something I read on a human blog the other day.
Of course, I mostly visit blogs written by other cats, but occasionally I do stop by a few human blogs (it gives me insight into how their minds work). And I ran across a post written by Jen of Redhead Ranting. It was about copycat bloggers — bloggers with no personality who just jump on the latest trends, or even lift other bloggers’ posts. And she mentioned imitating “shtick” too — one thing she said was, “I don’t know who started the cat blog fad, probably that cheeseburger cat, but whoever did it is now responsible for 352 billion blogs about cats, dogs, goats and other animals.”
Of course, I had to comment and mention that I’ve been online since January 2003, which I believe predates any cheeseburgers (although I wouldn’t know, the humans here don’t eat red meat). If I helped get the cat blogging trend underway, I am proud of it! Look at how far it has spread! There’s even a pet blogging conference next month called BlogPaws (and my human is one of the speakers). Now that I think of it, I am beginning to wonder if I should be getting a bigger piece of the pet blogging action.
Anyway. Jen replied to my comment with a question: “Sparkle, maybe you could teach the other cats how to spell properly. I know cats are smart — why can’t they use spell check? You spell words the right way, what’s up with cats who can’t spell? I don’t get it.”
Good question! I have never understood the whole LOL speak thing either. I do have a few theories. Here they are:
- English is a second language to cats, and just like humans, some cats are linguistically gifted, while others struggle with learning a new language.
- Some cats are relying on humans to translate for them and just dictate their blog and Twitter posts. In this case, it’s the human’s fault because they are the ones who can’t spell.
- It is a human device to make cats seem stupid! Yes, I know that sounds like one of those silly conspiracy theories, but I believe there may be something to it.
- It’s a cat device to make humans seem stupid for thinking that cats actually speak this way.
All I know is I am utterly incapable of speaking LOL — it would sound about as natural as my human (an editor-for-hire) speaking adolescent slang. Trust me, I tried a few LOL “frazes” and it made me cringe.
So you guys tell me — what is with all this LOL cat speak? Some of you do it, some of you don’t. Can any of you explain it?
Loki, very well put.
Anna, “LOL” means “Laughing Out Loud.”
I write 5 blogs–3 of my own, and two in the name of the cats. As an English major who does freelance proof reading, I certainly know the proper way to speak and write. For me, then, it is a fun, silly bit of stress-reducing nonsense to indulge in “LOLspeak” for the cats’ blogs. It also draws a line of demarcation between their blogs and my own, so there is no confusion over who is speaking. 😉
I look upon it as an exercise in creative writing: “How would the cats view this situation? What would they say? How would they say it (this cat vs. the other cat)?” It is in the same category as character development when writing a novel or short story.
The whole Cat Blogosphere came to my attention last year, when I was in a very low place emotionally due to financial struggles. Reading the various cat blogs, whether or not they used “LOLspeak” was a welcome distraction and mood-lifter. It was also a nostalgic trip for me: when I was a child, I had an aunt who wrote special letters just to me as if it were her dog speaking. I treasured those creative letters, and stumbling upon the Cat Blogosphere reminded me of those happy days at a point in my life when I needed it most.
So, whatever your take on “LOLspeak,” I thank each and every one of you who participate in this entertaining venue we call the Cat Blogosphere. You are creative geniuses, one and all! I salute you with a wave of the catnip mouse! 😉
Cheers, Lizzy
(“Mom” to Tigger, Munchkin, Jigsaw and Patches)
I’m also a little uncomfortable too caustic an attack on new LOL’ers, who may pour it on a little strong. At least they are trying to be creative, which is itself very cat.
The other parallel aspect of icanhascheezburger material is that cats are a somewhat distant civilization, and their thoughts and initiatives could never be satisfactorily translated into human. Both cats and dogs work with intricate languages of smells and ultra high frequency sound, for instance, and form very precise images of prey animals. How would such data ever be translated? Humans would starve if they had to open-field tackle prey animals on the run.
I take the complete opposite view of LOL language–that it suggests overwhelming intelligence in cats.
The notion is that it is not translated at all–that cats, alone among all the Animal Kingdom, have cracked human language, and are speaking it directly.
This is in the tradition of such works as “Archie and Mehitabel,” by Don Marquis, and “The Silent Miaow: A Manual for Kittens, Strays, and Homeless Cats,” by Paul Gallico. The Foreword of the “The Silent Miaow” discusses the discovery of garbled typing that appeared overnight, when paper was left in the platen.
Some other LOL notions have validity, too. It is very cat to climb around over the ceiling and peek down at the hoi polloi, like Ceiling Cat. It is very cat to have complete assurance in the quality of her work, as when she declares, in a pile of mangled stationery, “I finished the paperwork. Can I have cheezburger now, pls?” It is very cat to steal the dog’s bed and battle fearsomely to retain possession, and plot permutations arising therefrom.
Other notions are more human conceits, like Basement Cat. Basement Cat is funny, but doesn’t really reflect the attitude of many cats.
A common paradox of LOL material is that the cat is putting the human in its place with a withering observation, though it has not altogether mastered the language. This is consistent with the idea that the cat has learned to translate, itself, and is speaking English directly, as well as a cat might.
Very good and thoughtful post. I like to use “o hai” and some other words, just because they are cute. And LOL speak is HORRIBLY addictive. But good grammar is a must. I would expect poor grammar from a dog, but never from a cat.
Sparkle,
My sister and I are cat bloggers as well, and like you, we don’t use LOLspeak either. My little sister Denali would actually probably use it because it’s “cool” and she’s at that age after all. But I keep at her to correct and improve her grammar.
I personally don’t get LOL speak, simply because it’s hard to understand and hurts my kitty-brain when I have to puzzle out posts with it. I understand that the human language is a second language for all kitties, but when kitties go that extra mile and make all posts in LOLspeak. Well, I feel like I need a translator at that point. I mean, there are a lot of human concepts that I don’t get and stuff that just doesn’t translate right to me so adding in LOLspeak makes it even harder for me.
Denali though has no problems with it and finds it amusing. She refrains from doing it in her posts for the most part, but you’ll see her slip up every now and then. I will admit though that some of the photos I see on I Can Has Cheeseburger are funny. But to write in that manner all the time? I couldn’t do it.
Of course, Denali does say I’m stuffy and show my age by refusing to do LOLspeak. 🙂
At last, i found the real cat star….pleased to meet you Sparkle. I hate LOL cat stuff. Glad to hear, too, that the humans on your end don’t eat red meat. Yay team 🙂
The only cat blogs I read are those that are written like cats would actually talk–not all that baby talk that I can’t understand. I for one, know that if my Grace ever uttered a word, it would be articulate, sarcastic, and littered with cuss words. There is no way a little baby voice is coming out of that gal!
Dear Sparkle,
It took me a while to find you, but I am so glad that I have found your blog! For the past seven years or so I had been reading and working with cat-texts (stories and factual literature). I have only been blogging for less than a year, so all pets blogs are still relatively new to me.
Yes I have noticed that the language that is used to portray the language that a cat or a dog would use varies. But the writing style of different human authors is not uniform either.
Another thing that makes understanding different blog-texts is the fact that I have been living and working in a different language than English for many years. I see expressions, trms, words and even abbreviations that did not exist when I learned English and went to school.
What does “lol” mean? Does it mean “lots of luck” or “lots of love”, “lord or lordie”, “live and love” or is it something in some other language like Latin? I only learned last fall that “aka” means “also know as” . So if you would, please tell me what “lol” stands for?
Thank you
Anna
One slight correction: LOLcats are the speakers, LOLspeak is the language. It emanates from http://www.icanhascheezburger.com. It does, indeed, have mutations, and even dialects, such as BukkitSpeak for LOLruses. Even if u can’t stand cats (which would be unlikely for anyone reading this blog), if u can’t find something to laugh at on the LOLcats site, u need to check ur pulse. You’ve probably already crossed the Rainbow Bridge and don’t know it.
Dude, I’m just online to meet bootiful lady cats.
I leave the spelling, or lack there of to my ghostwriter. She can’t write in LOL, or read LOL speak either.
I know how hard it must be for a human to translate cat language. I had a cat that had kittens once. I used to listen to her make a very distinct chirping sound to them to call them to her. I decided to duplicate that sound myself. All of those little cats came running to me. So I know one phrase in cat language. That’s all. I’m still not quite sure what it means, but I know they will come to me when I say it.
You are a cat blogging pioneer Sparkle! We’re honored to know you and glad you blazed the trail for us!
As for the LOL cat speak, our pawsistant can’t even read it – something about it gives her a headache and her eyes glaze over – so we don’t use it either. It would take 5 hours for her to type up a post if she had to figure it all out.
It’s nice of you to hold down that stack of tax returns while pondering all this. Our mommy knows what your mommy is going through finding the basis for her mutual fund sales. When the mutual fund company doesn’t provide that info like they’re supposed to, people bring in upteen years of 1099s for her to figure it out for them. She doesn’t like that very much.
Sparkle, thank you for being a cat blogging trailblazer. We only started a little over a year ago.
Well, I can’t speak foar the othurs, but I started out az a cartoon and vlogger a LONG time ago. Mai primate haz a degree in English, akshully, and haz noticed there’s a lot uv dialects uv LOLcat and even sum clearly defined spelling and grammar roolz.
Heerz something interesting she notices, hur friends hoo iz learning English as a Second Language sez iz eazier to reed LOLcat speak out loud than proper English, cuz most English duzn’t sound like it looks and the phrazing duzn’t alwayz make sense. Yoo shud hear the arguments about “of” vs “off”, and worse, “enough”. LOLcats spell dese “uv, off and enuf”. Iz moar efficient. People hoo speek French uze double negatives alla time, but we can’t haz them in English foar sum reazon. Iz frustrating foar non-English speakerz. When she tutoring them in pronunciation she made cheat sheets in sumthing like LOLcat long before LOLcat wuz a language.
Another thing she notices, when we both sharing the same account foar blogging oar tweeting, iz easier to tell whethur hooman oar cat iz talking. Since lots uv people hoo watches Loki videos and reedz Loki books iz kids, they seem to like me talking moar like them. Iz prolly the same way with Elmo.
And thirdly, psychologically the LOLcat baby talk must haz some kinda calming effect, cuz since I started talking in mai native LOLspeak I get trolls LOTS less, and when I do get trollz, moar people feels sorry and wants to help defend me.
But yoo will never see me uze “your” instead uv “you’re”. Iz spelled UR.
Luv,
Loki
Thank you, Loki! You are an LOL Cat linguistic expert, so I am very happy you came by to enlighten us!
aww I wish I could go to BlogPaws to see your mom speak. I have family events in April :(. Hope they will record it for us :).
My cats do the LOL thing occasionally. It is very popular among the younger generation. I remember the first time I went on cheezburger website (at the time I wasn’t aware of such thing as lolcat), so I thought I was on a foreign website because all the comments were written in a way that I had never seen before.
Sparkle, I can’t wait to hear some of these answers. Thanks for asking your cat friends about this perplexing trend.